


Saving Sawyer

by FeistyMouse



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, BAMF Alex Danvers, Badass Alex Danvers, Badass Kara Danvers, Danger, Drama, F/F, Family, Family Drama, Genius Lena Luthor, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Kickass Danvers Sisters, Sanvers and SuperCorp
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2019-03-26 22:04:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13866915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeistyMouse/pseuds/FeistyMouse
Summary: An unusually quiet day in National City takes a turn for the worse when an alien invasion leaves Maggie fighting for her life, and it's up to Alex and Kara to save her. Sanvers and SuperCorp.





	1. It's Quiet, Too Quiet

"I totally kicked your ass," Alex gloats in her best know-it-all voice.

"You did not!" Kara jibes back. "One more move and I'd have had you."

"Yeah, yeah," Alex jokes, playfully nudging her sister as they make their way from training and head towards the main room.

A gentle breeze flows through the open doors that lead onto the balcony and fills the room with the sweet scent of fresh air.

Alex and Kara find J'onn hunched over the large round table in the centre of the room, his eyes closed and his hands massaging his temples.

"J'onn, what's the matter? Is everything okay?" Alex asks, leaning over the table so that her head was at the same height as the director's.

"Yes," J'onn states. "That's the problem. There has been no criminal alien activity for three days. I'm missing something." He begins to pace, his eyes trained on the floor.

"I'm sure it's nothing," Alex tries to reassure him.

"Is there anything for me to do?" Kara asks. "We've trained every day for the last three days, I've completed a string of tests and I was even Alex's target in shooting practice." She slumps against the table looking bored.

"I suppose you could go and help Alex in the lab. Other than that, no. Nothing's happening and I want to know why." J'onn thinks for a moment. "AGENT SCHOTT!"

"Yes Papa Bear, Director, sir?" Winn mumbles as he scuttles out of his seat to stand next to the director.

"Run the checks again," J'onn commands.

"Absolutely," Winn stutters as he clumsily makes his way back to his desk, tablet in hand.

"I guess we'll be in the lab, then," Alex says, looking at Kara.

"Hey, can we just take a minute?" Kara asks as they walk up the stairs in the direction of the balcony.

"Why, feeling tired from your defeat?" Alex jokes.

Kara pulls her best 'very funny' face as they overlook the city that is bathed in the warm summer sun. They stand in silence for a minute, taking in the beauty of the day and watching people strolling in the park.

"What're you doing for date night with Lena?" Alex asks her sister.

"We're going to her favourite restaurant," Kara says. "It was her turn to choose."

Alex nods her understanding.

"What about you and Maggie?"

"The Barenaked Ladies are playing," Alex replies, beaming. "And then maybe pool at the bar."

"That does sounds like a fun date night," Kara says. "Are you ready to-"

"Do you see that?" Alex interrupts her sister. She's pointing to a dot in the sky that seems to be getting larger and closer to the ground with every passing second.

Kara follows Alex's finger and stares at the object. "Yeah," she says, perplexed.

They watch as the dot begins to take shape.

"Uhh, J'onn!" Alex shouts, unable to tear her eyes from the object that was clearly some sort of ship.

"Oh my Rao." Kara's voice is little more than a whisper, but Alex still hears.

And then she sees what Kara had seen.

Hundreds of little flecks fly in perfect formation, following their leader, until they begin to break away in twos.

Alex and Kara don't stop to see the rest.

"WE HAVE A CODE RED," Alex bellows as she storms inside, hitting the emergency button on the wall with force.

"What's going on, Agent Danvers?" J'onn asks as Alex and Kara approach the centre of the room.

"Hundreds of ships have just appeared from nowhere, sir," Alex says. "They're descending on the city as we speak."

"Agent Schott?" The director says, prompting the agent for an update.

"Our satellites are showing a full convoy, sir. They're landing across the city. Intentions are currently unknown, but the lead ship is now grounded in the park outside."

"Draw up CCTV," Alex commands as J'onn gives orders to other agents.

Winn swivels into his chair and brings up various images from across the city. Each screen is filled with people fleeing from grey ships.

"Any idea who they are and where they're from?" Kara asks, placing her hands on her hips.

"Nothing yet," Winn replies as he runs multiple scans of the ships.

"You might want to hurry it up," Kara says, concern creeping into her voice. "They're getting off the ships."

Kara, Alex, J'onn and Winn watch the monitors as figures begin to disembark. From the images, they can see that the aliens are taller than humans, although not by much. Each one holds a gun, their holsters lying empty across their backs. They begin to take aim at the scattering people.

"Agent Danvers, get a team and take care of the lead ship in the park," J'onn commands, receiving a brief nod from Alex before she strides away purposefully.

"Supergirl," J'onn begins, but upon turning on his heels, he sees that the Kryptonian has already disappeared, likely to the park where she knew that she could protect her sister. "Winn, keep me on a rolling update." The director exits the room to join the fight.

/

Alex fires off a quick text to Maggie.

**Mother ship in park.**

She zips her phone in the pocket of her tactical gear and picks up her DEO-grade gun.

"Okay team, let's go!" Alex shouts.

They all file outside and head in the direction of the park.

Chaos awaits them.

Multiple ships have now landed on the grass and aliens continue to pour out in throngs, taking aim at the scarpering people who were picnicking and sunbathing until a few minutes ago. Alex sees Kara fighting in the centre of the park, close to the monument. The aliens gang up on her but are no match for her in combat as she drops them to the ground with a single punch.

"Fire at will," Alex commands to her team, who utilise Kara's distraction to their advantage.

Her phone buzzes in her pocket. She whips it out quickly to see a response from Maggie.

**ETA two minutes.**

Alex quickly pockets her phone and begins to shoot at the sea of aliens as her team use trees and benches for cover.

"Winn, do you have any idea who these guys are?" Alex asks over the comms.

"Still nothing," he replies. "I'm running more checks."

"Damn," Alex exclaims. She heads towards her sister, shooting several aliens as she does so. She takes cover behind the monument, allows her blaster to recharge and peers around the corner to assess the ship. In doing so, she sees her team fighting the hordes. She witnesses the power of the alien tech as it sends the DEO agents crashing to the ground in heaps. Each blast that connects with a person shocks them, causing them to writhe and seize on the ground for a few seconds before their bodies become completely motionless.

"Got it!" Winn exclaims down the comms. "They're Drazans."

"And?" Alex prompts him for more information. "Do you have anything about their weapons? Each shot causes some sort of seizure and then it just stops."

"There's really not a lot of information," Winn bumbles. "It seems that their shots cause temporary paralysis as opposed to death, but that's all the database says. Oh, and J'onn is helping to fight them off at the harbour."

"'Kay, thanks," Alex says. She catches Kara's eye, knowing that her sister had heard everything Winn had said. The agent gives a slight nod before standing in the open and beginning to fire again. They work as a team with Kara knocking back aliens for Alex to blast until a few shots rain in their direction, causing Alex to have to retreat back to cover.

She turns to see Maggie and a squad of NCPD officers joining the fight. The tiny detective never misses a shot as she makes her way towards her girlfriend.

"What've we got?" Maggie asks, checking the rounds in her gun and reloading.

"Drazans, that's pretty much all we know," Alex replies, looking at Maggie.

Kara appears from the other side of the statue and crouches with Alex and Maggie.

"We've got incoming," she warns, signalling for the women to look in the direction she'd just come from.

The three women sneak a glance. Disembarking from the ship is a Drazan who stands a foot taller than the rest. It has its talons wrapped around a larger, more serious-looking gun and growls before showering the DEO agents and NCPD officers with rounds.

"Okay, I'll distract him," Kara says. "You guys take him out from this angle."

Alex and Maggie give curt nods. While Alex would prefer that her sister wasn't using herself as a target for anyone other than her, she doesn't have a better idea.

Kara flies into the air, ensuring that she's within the Drazan's field of vision. His attention snaps to her and he changes the direction of his fire. For the most part she's too fast, but when a few of his shots do connect they send little shocks through her body and her skin stings like fire, though not enough to harm or deter her from the fight.

Below, Alex, Maggie and the rest of the armed teams intensify their fire.

The Drazan growls again, angered, but he doesn't relent his attack. His minions respond to their leader's command by fighting back.

"We need to be closer," Maggie states. She and Alex step around the monument into the open knowing that the Drazan won't be expecting it.

"How is that guy still alive?" Winn asks. He can see everything as it unfolds but doesn't know anything about tactics, so he can't offer them any advice.

"He won't be for much longer," Kara hisses. Heat vision blares from her eyes with force. The Drazan screeches, cries out with pain as his body burns. He's flung backwards but manages to fire one last blind shot before he crumples to the floor with a thud.

"MAGGIE!"

Alex's chilling scream rings around the park.

Kara looks down from her vantage point. Maggie is laid strewn across the grass, unmoving, with Alex at her side.

"Maggie, Maggie," Alex repeats over and over, trying to shake her girlfriend back into consciousness. "She's not seizing, why isn't she seizing like the others?" Alex is shouting to no one in particular as Kara lands on the other side of the unconscious detective.

Winn says something but no one really hears. They're too preoccupied with the motionless body between them.

Alex presses her ear to Maggie's chest, hoping, praying, desperate to hear the thump thump thump of her heart or feel even the slightest rise and fall of her chest.

Kara waits expectantly for confirmation that Maggie is alive, her eyes focused solely on her sister.

Alex lifts her head. Her eyes are threatening to overflow with tears and her bottom lip quivers. Her trembling voice is barely a whisper.

"She's not breathing."


	2. Sacrifices

Kara places the unresponsive detective on an empty bed in the med bay. Her limbs sprawl over the sheets and spill over the edge as Alex grasps her girlfriend's hand, desperately hoping that she'll feel it squeeze hers in that reassuring way it always does when Alex is worried.

Worried is an understatement. Worry is for when Kara is upset or when Alex forgets to water Maggie's bonsai tree when she's at work.

There is no word to describe what Alex is feeling.

Maggie had been out for almost five minutes and had just about responded to the frantic CPR that Alex had administered in the park, enough that it bought her some time to get her to the DEO. Kara had shielded them from gunfire before throwing Maggie over her shoulder and holding Alex tight with her free arm as she flew them to the nearby headquarters. There wasn't time to wait for the medical team to arrive, especially with all the unknowns they were dealing with.

"What happened?" Doctor Hamilton asks, entering the med bay with a purpose in her stride and pulling her stethoscope from around her neck.

Alex doesn't hear, doesn't respond. She's still grasping Maggie's hand, kissing it gently, scrunching her eyes closed as she touches it against her forehead before resting it against her cheek. It's still warm, still feels like Maggie, and Alex wills it to stay that way.

"She was hit by a stray blast from the leader as I… as I…" Kara trails off, realising what she was about to say, realising that her actions caused this. "As I burned him with my heat vision."

"And what do we know about this blast?" The doctor asks, examining Maggie.

"Nothing," Winn says, appearing in the doorway. "Other than that the shot from the leader is stronger and more powerful than those from the regular guns." Winn didn't add that that was what he'd said down the comms, but he figured that Alex and Kara had been preoccupied with Maggie to hear.

"Nothing?" Alex's attention is piqued by Winn's words. "What do you mean, 'nothing', Agent Schott?" Alex barks, scowling at Winn. She stands from her crouched position, never letting go of Maggie's hand, but her fierce stance still intimidates Winn.

"Alex, hey, it's not Winn's fault," Kara says, standing in front of her friend. She's silenced by the glare that Alex gives her.

"Our database doesn't hold much information," Winn mumbles apologetically.

Then atmosphere in the room changes in a heartbeat.

Maggie's body convulses, her limbs flailing uncontrollably as she thrashes, though her eyes never open. The bed rattles with the force generated by her erratic movements and Kara can hear her heart crashing in her chest as her head bashes against the pillow under it.

"Hold her down!" Doctor Hamilton commands.

Kara leaps into action, pinning the detective's legs to the bed as Alex and Hamilton grab an arm each.

When Maggie finally stills, the doctor checks for a pulse.

"Her breathing has stopped. Someone grab me an internal heart monitor and a ventilator." Hamilton checks that nothing is obstructing Maggie's airway as Alex locates both.

The doctor tries to insert the DEO-grade monitor into Maggie's arm as she instructs Alex to perform CPR again. The needle snaps and falls to the floor with a clink.

"That doesn't make any sense," Alex says, her eyes filled with panic as she watches the doctor. "The needle should go in."

Hamilton tries again, her hands perfectly steady, but the new needle snaps the moment it is pressured against Maggie's skin.

"That's not right, that shouldn't happen," Alex stutters, her eyes beginning to fill with panicked tears.

"We'll just have to ventilate without it," Doctor Hamilton declares. She finds a weak pulse and manoeuvres a tube down Maggie's throat. The slight rise and fall of her chest shows that it's working.

"She's stable," Hamilton declares.

Alex, Kara and Winn let out audible sighs of relief.

Alex pulls a stool towards Maggie's bed and perches on the edge of it. She gently brushes stray strands of hair out of the detective's face, running her fingers through her drenched hairline before placing a soft, lingering kiss on her rosy cheek.

She can't lose Maggie now, can't comprehend the thought of a life without her. She has to believe that she will be okay, that she'll come back to her.

Kara stands behind her sister, rubbing her free arm reassuringly, letting her know that's she's not alone.

"The ventilator will keep her stable for now, but we really need to know what's going on internally," the doctor states.

"I really don't know what else to check," Winn says, his eyes cast downwards. "I'm sorry, Alex."

Alex looks at Winn, but this time she isn't angry. Her eyes are filled with sadness and fear, and deep down she knows it's not Winn's fault, none of this is. She wraps her arms around her sister's waist and buries her face against her stomach in an effort to stop tears from forming.

Realisation draws itself across Kara's features and she pats her sister's shoulder to get her attention. "I have an idea," she says, feeling hopeful for the first time that day.

/

"Good morning, Kara," Alura says as Kara and Alex walk into the room.

Kara had convinced her sister to go with her to ask her mom about the Drazans. Winn promised that he would stay with Maggie and Hamilton assured Alex that she was stable.

"Hi, mom," Kara replies. There was nothing good about that morning. "What can you tell us about Drazans?"

"Drazans hail from the planet Drozisia, located in the Axin system. They are known for their aggression and have an aptitude for invading planets to find sacrifices for their gods."

Both Alex and Kara are taken aback by Alura's blunt statement.

"Sacrifices?" Alex questions, incredulous. "They shot Maggie, shot all those other agents because they want a sacrifice?" Her face is thunderous, her eyebrows pulled into an angry scowl as she bites her cheek.

"When they invade, Drazans send their mercenaries to eliminate the first responders. They do not kill. Most beings recover from a state of temporary paralysis within a few hours of coming into contact with a shot fired from their weapons. This gives the General Drazans long enough to acquire a target without the threat of retaliation, as those who are incapacitated first are considered to be weaker."

"But Maggie wasn't a target. It was an accident," Alex almost whispers.

"That does not matter. Once someone has been infected, they are automatically eligible to be taken by the Drazans."

"Infected? So the bigger Drazans are the ones who find the sacrifices?" Kara asks, placing her hands on her hips in contemplation as she paces.

"Yes. The General's weaponry is more powerful. A single shot contains their own venom, which renders their victims unconscious," the hologram states matter-of-factly.

"What's in their venom?" Alex asks.

"Purified poison. It will affect you if you touch it, ingest it or are bitten by a Drazan."

Alex gasps as Kara stops pacing, shocked.

Alura continues. "Its toxicity attacks victims from the inside, hardening their skin and filling them with a noxious green liquid until they drown."

At that moment, something inside Alex snaps. Her eyes overflow with tears as her lip trembles. She feels the urge to hit something, to smash something, but there isn't anything around her that fits the requirement, so she resorts to slumping against the wall, bringing her knees to her head as the tears fall and stain her trousers. Blubs wrack her diaphragm as Kara sits next to her, pulling her into her arms, her head resting against her chest. She can hear Kara's elevated heartbeat as the Kryptonian holds her close.

"And can we stop it?" Kara asks the hologram.

"The effects can be reversed with a shot of antivenom that includes the liquid from a Drozia leaf, administered through a needle from the same plant as this is the only known thing that can penetrate the skin."

"And where can we find the leaf?" Kara asks, looking at the hologram of her mother.

"This leaf is unique to Drozisia."

Alex suddenly snaps into action, breaking free of Kara's embrace and striding towards the door before the Kryptonian even has time to react.

"Then that's where we'll go."

/

Alex returns to the med bay, Kara on her heels. They walk in to find J'onn standing over Maggie, his eyes closed and his fingers pressed to his temple.

"Alex, I came back as soon as I could," he says, walking towards his second. "Her mind is okay, I can sense it. Winn says she was shot?"

"It was an accident," Alex says, slight relief from J'onn's words flooding her body as she peers around J'onn to see Maggie, checks that the ventilator is still doing its job. She quickly gets to the point. "Look, I need to go to Drozisia to get the antivenom. It's the only thing that'll save her."

"I can't just let you go to Drozisia, Alex," J'onn begins.

"If you don't, she'll die, and that's only if the Drazans don't take her first," Alex says forcefully.

"D-die?" Winn stutters.

"The Drazan venom from the blast will take over her body and suffocate her," Kara says so that Alex doesn't have to. "But that's not before they try to get in here to take her as their sacrifice."

The room is stunned into silence, the only sound being the click of the ventilator as it breathes for the detective.

"I have to go, J'onn," Alex begs. "I have to save her. I can't let her die."

J'onn thinks for a moment. He glances back at the detective who he knows means so much to Alex, at the woman who is quickly becoming a third Earth-daughter to him. He turns his attention back to the agent whose watery brown eyes meet his in desperation.

"The only thing I know about Drozisia is that it has a purple sun," J'onn states. "It's too dangerous, we wouldn't be able to contact you. I can't allow it."

"We don't know what we'd be up against, or if we can even breathe its air, if there's any oxygen at all." Kara tries to reason with her sister, but she knows that it'll fall on deaf ears, knows that it's the only way to save Maggie.

Alex looks Kara in the eye before the Kryptonian can continue, intending on vocalising her agreement that they need to go to Drozisia.

"Did you give up on me when Lillian brainwashed me into fighting you? No. You fought for me, no matter how dangerous that was for you." Alex glances back at J'onn. "And did you give up on Kara when she was affected by the Red Kryptonite? No. We saved her."

Kara and J'onn take in Alex's words, their expressions unreadable.

"We fought for each other in the face of danger and now Maggie needs me to fight for her. I'm going, J'onn. I'll reprogramme the portal myself if I have to."

J'onn looks at the defiant agent in front of him. Despite the severity of the situation, he's impressed by her boldness and her drive.

"I'll prepare the agents for an impending attack against the DEO in case the Drazans come for Maggie." J'onn inhales deeply before he speaks again, thinking that this was the craziest command he'd ever given. "Go and prepare yourselves for your trip to Drozisia. Kara's going with you."

Alex is momentarily stunned. She didn't expect J'onn to relent. She pulls him into a hug, wrapping her arms around his neck before realising that this was neither the time nor the place for hugging.

"Thank you, sir," she says, heading towards the doorway, Kara by her side.

"She's lucky to have you, Alex" J'onn says about Maggie, looking at the detective again.

"No sir," Alex contradicts, hovering in the doorway. "I'm the lucky one and right now my heart is aching just to see her smile again."

And then they're gone.


	3. It's My Turn to Save You

"Kara! What's happening? Are you okay?"

The sound of Lena's panicked voice travels down the phone. She'd called Kara the second she heard about the invasion on the news. Some of the information being reported was that Supergirl had been seen carrying two women away from the scene, one of them being an injured NCPD officer.

Kara's voice is heavy as she finds the words to respond. "I'm fine, Lena, but Maggie's been shot."

Brief silence follows as Lena processes what Kara has just told her. "Is… Is she okay?"

Kara, who has left Alex in the DEO changing rooms and is now pacing outside the door, suddenly feels her lip quiver. She can't hold in her emotions anymore and tears begin to drip down her cheeks. A small sniffle alerts Lena to the fact that her girlfriend is upset, leading her to think the worst.

"She's dead?" Lena exclaims, shocked, her heart sinking as she too begins to get emotional.

"No!" Kara replies. "But she will be if we don't help her."

"So we will," Lena says in an attempt to reassure her distressed girlfriend.

"But it's all my fault, Lena," Kara blubbers, her breath catching on every word.

Lena knows that this probably isn't true. Whenever something goes wrong, Kara always takes it hard and immediately places all the blame on herself. "I'm sure that's not true, Kara."

"Listen, we need your help. Can you get over here safely or do you need me to come get you?" Kara brushes over Lena's attempt to make her feel better, because she doesn't think that she deserves it.

"I'm already on my way. I love you, Kara."

"Yeah, I love you too."

/

Kara continues to pace outside the changing rooms for a few minutes after hanging up the call. She doesn't feel ready to go back in and see her sister looking lost and frightened for Maggie. As she turns on her heels, she spots Winn coming down the corridor. He's holding two navy suits.

As he approaches Kara, he offers one to her and notices the redness of her face. She studies the suit before looking questioningly at Winn, not allowing him to broach the subject.

"Because we don't know what powers you'll have, if any, I've designed these to be bullet and blast proof. Yours should fit under your suit." Winn looks proud of his creations.

"They're great, Winn," Kara manages, raising the tiniest of smiles to show her friend how appreciative she is. "Thank you."

"Any time," he replies before awkwardly placing a hand of reassurance on Kara's shoulder and then heading back to work.

Kara looks at the slightly smaller suit that is intended for Alex. She sucks in a deep breath before opening the door.

Alex is perched on the edge of a bench, her forehead resting against the palms of her hands. She looks up as Kara stands in front of her, holding out a suit.

Kara notices the puffiness and shimmering of her sister's eyes and feels her heart swell with sadness, with a longing to make everything better.

"Bulletproof suits from Winn," Kara says, hanging it on the hook next to Alex's head.

Alex sniffles and wipes away a stray tear. She runs the fabric of the suit between her fingers, not believing that she was about to travel to another planet, not believing that Maggie was still lying unconscious a few halls down.

She stands up to get changed, her back to Kara, her eyes cast down to the floor as her mind replays Maggie getting shot over and over again, her body seizing and then becoming disconcertingly calm. Kara uses her super speed to get put on her second suit.

When Alex is done, she looks up to find Kara sitting much like she was before with her head in her hands, but unlike Alex, her shoulders shake.

"Kara?" Alex asks, suddenly worried for her sister.

When Kara doesn't look up, Alex sits next to her and wraps an arm around her shuddering shoulders.

"Kara, talk to me," Alex says softly.

Kara shakes her head. "I'm okay, I'm okay, don't worry about me," she mumbles into her hands.

Alex sighs and tries to take Kara's hand by peeling it away from her face. Eventually, she succeeds and Kara sits upright, although she still won't look Alex in the eye. They sit in silence. Kara knows that Alex doesn't believer her and won't let her leave without telling her what's wrong.

She steadies her breathing. "I'm so sorry, Alex. If I hadn't hit that General with my heat vision, Maggie wouldn't be lying in the med bay right now fighting for her life. If I'd been more careful she'd be okay and we wouldn't have to risk our lives and-"

"Kara, stop!" Alex squeezes Kara's hand, and the Kryptonian stops her blubbering, looks at her sister with heartbroken blue eyes. "This is not your fault. You _must not_ blame yourself. You were fighting to protect the city, you did what you thought would help. Maggie was unlucky."

Kara's lip quivers. "But I could have stopped him another way and Maggie would be okay."

"Did you shoot Maggie?" Alex asks.

Kara looks perplexed.

"Did _you_ shoot Maggie, Kara?"

Kara shakes her head.

"And when you used your heat vision did you know that she would get shot?"

Kara sniffles and shakes her head again.

"Then none of this is your fault."

Kara looks Alex in the eye. "You're not mad at me?"

"I could never be mad at you. You're my sister and you never meant for this to happen. I know how much Maggie means to you too, how you'd fight to protect her just like you would me and Lena. It means the world to me that you're going to help me to get her back." Alex's voice is gentle, soothing and Kara wipes away the tears that still drip down her cheeks.

"I'm still sorry that this happened to her," Kara sniffles.

Alex rubs her sister's back and rests her head on her shoulder. "Yeah, me too."

/

Alex and Kara return to the med bay to find J'onn and Winn sitting by Maggie's bed, probably discussing the mission and its logistics. Their heads snap towards the door when they see the Danvers sisters walk in.

"How's she doing?" Alex asks, heading straight for the bed. She gently begins to stroke Maggie's hand.

"The same," J'onn replies.

"And the portal?"

"Lena's on her way," Kara says.

"And so is your mother," Winn mumbles.

Alex looks at Winn before turning her attention to Doctor Hamilton, who has been hovering in the doorway examining Maggie's charts. "How long do you think we have?"

Hamilton lets out a long breath. "It's really hard to say, especially when we can't run many tests, but a day and a half at best."

Alex's eyes widen in horror and she has to stop herself from breaking down because Maggie is one of the only people who can fix her. Even Kara would struggle to bring her back from the despair she would feel if she lost Maggie forever. She was expecting Hamilton to say that Maggie would be okay for at least another few days to give her and Kara time to find the Drozia leaf and for Lena to turn it into the antidote.

But time isn't on their side.

Time isn't on Maggie's side.

And it's ticking.

"Oh my God," Lena says, appearing in the doorway, her hands clamped over her mouth. She didn't expect the usually feisty, funny, caring detective to be on a ventilator, so still, so much the opposite of her usual self. Kara hadn't told her that she wasn't conscious. "Oh Alex," she adds, closing the distance between them and pulling her into a hug. "We're going to get her back, I promise."

"Thanks, Lena," Alex replies quietly. "But you haven't heard what we need you to do yet."

Lena looks at Kara and raises an eyebrow. She notices the flush of her girlfriend's cheeks and the slight redness of her eyes and knows that she's been putting all the blame on herself despite their earlier conversation and has probably confessed her misplaced guilt to Alex.

"We need to travel to Drozisia in the Axin system and to get there we need to re-programme the portal we have," Kara says.

"That sounds easy enough," Lena replies, realising that they're talking about another planet in a faraway system.

"But we need to be able to open the portal on the other side without a gate."

Lena's brow furrows, pinches the skin in the middle. "Not as easy but still possible."

"And we need it done now," Alex finishes, returning to Maggie's side and taking her hand. "She's effectively going to drown if we don't get a Drozia leaf and needle and administer the antivenom within the next thirty-six hours."

Lena looks stunned, feels her stomach knot and twist when she realises that the tiny detective only has a day and a half, and her heart races when she realises that all their hopes of saving her are pinned on her ability to reroute the portal.

If Lena can't do this, Maggie will die.

"Show me the portal?" She says, telling herself that she can fix it, that she will fix it.

Winn steps forward. "I'll take you."

Lena nods. She walks up to Kara and pulls her in for a kiss before quickly following Winn.

/

Sparks fly out of the control box at the front of the portal.

"Dammit!" Lena exclaims, flinging her arms in the air in exasperation. She quickly regains her composure and attempts to reassign wires so that the portal will function.

"I think that's the first time I've ever heard you curse."

Lena peers over her shoulder from her crouched position and sees Kara closing the door behind her.

'Well, it certainly won't be the last," Lena sighs, standing up. "It's a little more complicated than I first thought."

Kara's face suddenly looks worried.

"But I can do it!" Lena says, rubbing her hand up and down Kara's arm to reassure her. "I'm almost there." She places a kiss on her girlfriend's cheek before turning back to the control box.

Kara watches as Lena reattaches some wires. This time there are no sparks.

"Hand me that tablet," Lena instructs Kara, pointing to it on the table.

Kara uses her super speed and has it in Lena's hand in a second.

"Okay….." Lena mutters to herself, flicking it on and tapping away. Kara sees her drag her lip between her teeth in concentration as she studies diagrams of the portal, taps in seemingly random numbers and letters and wills it to work.

Kara begins to pace again, unhappy that there isn't anything that she can do to help but unable to keep still because if she does all of her worry and stress will begin to build and Alex and Maggie need her to be calm and focused.

"Done!" Lena exclaims, smiling up at Kara and placing the tablet back on the table. "Let's save Maggie!"

/

After everyone has left, Alex climbs into bed next to Maggie. She strokes her hair, feels its soft silkiness as it runs through her fingers. She studies her eyebrows, the shape of her nose, the fullness of her lips and the reassuring pinkness in her cheeks that show that she's still in there, still living, still fighting. She looks for her favourite dimples, the ones that make her heart flutter every time they so frequently appear, but instead her heart sinks when her eyes don't find them.

Alex entwines her girlfriend's fingers in her own, thinks about every time they've caressed her face when Maggie has placed a passionate kiss on her lips or when they've held her close after Alex has had a bad day or when they've been flung up in excitement after she sinks the winning ball into the pocket when they play pool at the bar.

She thinks about all the times she's said 'I love you' and all the times that Maggie has said it back, about how she wishes that she'd told her even more and how she craves to hear her say it back just one more time.

Alex rests her head against Maggie's shoulder, notes how strange it feels for Maggie to not rest her head atop hers as she so often does whenever they're snuggled on the couch watching TV. She breathes in her sweet smell and makes a mental note of it.

A tear slips down her cheek but she allows it to fall, doesn't rub it away because she doesn't want to leave Maggie but knows that she has to.

She flips onto her side, her hand propping up her head, and more tears begin to form in her eyes until they begin to spill freely as she realises that this could be the last time she sees Maggie alive.

Footsteps echo down the hallway and come to a stop outside the med bay.

"The portal is ready," Kara says quietly.

Alex quickly wipes away her tears but doesn't turn around. "'Kay."

She hears Kara walk away and is grateful that her sister understands that she still needs another few precious moments alone with Maggie.

Alex sniffles, clears her throat and inhales and exhales in time with the ventilator, in time with Maggie in order to regulate her breathing, wishing that she could do Maggie's breathing for her.

"I don't know whether you can hear me," she begins, her breath catching in her throat. "But I love you, Maggie Sawyer, forever. You saved me from drowning so now it's my turn to save you. I'm not going to let you leave, at least not without saying goodbye. So this isn't goodbye."

Alex places a lingering kiss on Maggie's cheek, feels its warmth radiating against her lips. She climbs out of the bed, makes sure that Maggie is neatly tucked in and squeezes her hand one last time.

"This is 'see you around, Sawyer'."

/

Alex opens the door to the portal room.

Kara, Lena, J'onn, Winn and Eliza turn to look at her.

Eliza immediately holds out her arms to her daughter and pulls her into the strongest hug she can. "I'll be with her every second. She won't be alone."

"Thank you, mom," Alex mumbles into her shoulder.

As they break apart, Winn holds up two backpacks, offering one to her and one to Kara.

"We've filled these with everything you might need," he begins. "There are oxygen masks, food and water, a flashlight, a box for the Drozia leaf and the portable portal generator, along with some other stuff, too."

"When you want to come back, press the red button at the top of the generator pad," Lena says as Alex slips her blaster into its holster. "The only thing is, is that the portal will only reopen at your end from the exact place it opens the first time. I didn't have time to modify it any further, I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise, Lena," Alex says, placing her hand on the other woman's arm. "You've done amazingly to get us to where we are. Thank you."

Lena smiles at the compliment before turning her attention to Kara, moving to stand next to her and taking her hand.

"The fight outside is still ongoing but we have everything under control here. However, we won't be able to contact you," J'onn says. "You'll be too far away for comms but we expect your trackers to work. Kara has just had one implanted too so we'll know your vitals."

Kara pulls at her suit, dragging it at the shoulder. A tiny patch of her skin glows green. Hamilton had promised that the minuscule amount of Kryptonite that had been used to inject the tracker would simply dissolve and not cause any serious harm, although her shoulder may ache for a few hours.

"Here, put these on," Winn instructs, handing Alex and Kara a watch each. Both read 24:00:00, which then, they hope, leaves Lena with enough time to develop the antidote when they return. Seeing the timer makes them realise how little time they actually have, that they need to say goodbye and leave immediately.

Kara pulls Lena's face towards hers. Their lips meet, crashing together as each woman savours the kiss. Alex hugs her mom and then J'onn and Winn. As Kara says her goodbyes to everyone, Alex pulls Lena into a hug.

"I'll bring her back, Lena. I promise," Alex says upon seeing the younger woman's worried expression.

Lena nods, knowing that Alex would do anything to keep Kara safe. Lena doesn't tell the elder Danvers that she's worried for her too, although Kara would never let anything happen to Alex, either. Lena has come to care deeply about Alex and Maggie having spent so much time with them over the last few months, especially at movie and game nights, so she was having a hard time dealing with the fact that she could lose all three of her favourite people in one day.

Alex sucks in a deep breath and looks at Kara. The Kryptonian nods, letting her sister know that she's ready to go.

"Okay, Lena," Alex says, signalling that she wants her to open the portal.

A flash of blue swirls in front of Alex and Kara, who now stand side by side in front of the gateway.

Kara fumbles for Alex's hand. When she finds it, she locks it with hers, giving it the hardest squeeze she can without breaking her sister's hand.

"El mayara, right?" Alex says, glancing at her sister.

Kara nods. "Stronger together."

And then they step forward hand in hand and are absorbed by the blue nothingness.


	4. The Countdown Begins

Alex and Kara hold their breath.

Their hands are grasped together tightly, neither willing to let the other go for fear of the unknown, for fear of losing one another.

Kara had squeezed her eyes closed as they stepped through the portal, apprehensive of what they might find on the other side. She anxiously peeps through one eye before staring wide-eyed at her expansive surroundings.

Alex had been the opposite of her sister. She didn't want to close her eyes, wanted to take in every minute detail in case it helped her to better understand where they were and what they needed to find, though she too now stares in awe.

They're stood in the middle of a desert. Sand whips around their feet in the breeze, the ground beneath them dry and cracked. Golden dunes rise up around them, their ripples jutting against what can only be described as an early-evening sky.

That's where a semblance of normality stops.

As the portal disappears from behind them, Alex immediately questions the sand and why it doesn't cover every inch of the ground, but she doesn't voice it. She's still holding her breath, too afraid that the air could be toxic.

Kara and Alex stare in amazement at the sky.

Where orange sand ends, hues of olive and earthy green mingle together, getting paler and paler the closer to the horizon they look. The emerald stretches far beyond the horizon and into the depths of infinity. The purple sun is bold and vivid against its jade backdrop as it begins to disappear below the horizon. Because of this, the air is cool as it tickles their face and plays with their hair.

Finally, Alex can't hold her breath any longer. She sucks in a lungful of air as she turns her attention to Kara, whose head is tipped back as she admires the beautiful sky.

"It's okay!" Alex exclaims, inhaling the dusty air. "The atmosphere, it's not toxic!"

Kara looks at her sister who is now trying to regulate her breathing. She smiles as she inhales. "This place is beautiful. How can such an incredible planet be inhabited by the Drazans?"

Kara's question is rhetorical, but Alex raises her eyebrows in agreement.

"So what first?" Kara asks, shaking her sister's hand reassuringly.

Alex shrugs as she stares into the distance.

"I have no idea, Kara. I wasn't even sure that we'd get this far."

The Kryptonian checks her countdown watch, which had started automatically when they stepped through the portal, before she begins to walk forward, never letting go of Alex's hand, gently pulling her along behind her. The bottom of her cape, which isn't restricted by her backpack, flutters in the breeze as Alex catches up with her.

"I have no idea where we're going," Kara begins, looking at Alex. "But this way seems as good as any."

/

Alex checks her watch.

23:09:31

They've been walking for almost an hour.

Though the landscape barely changes, the darkness catches up with them and the night air is cold.

Kara has tried to fill the time by talking about CatCo and training at the DEO in an attempt to take Alex's mind off Maggie and the condition they left her in.

As much as Alex appreciates it, it doesn't work. She can still see Maggie lying in the bed in the med bay, the ventilator the only thing keeping her alive.

For now.

Still, she's grateful for Kara's attempted distraction and even manages a small smile as she tells her about James taking some prints onto the balcony at CatCo and them getting swept up in the breeze, meaning that Kara had to save them as they fluttered towards the ground.

"Wait!" Alex exclaims suddenly, grabbing Kara's arm to stop her. "Do you hear that?"

Kara listens, but she can only hear the wind. She shakes her head.

"You don't hear voices?"

"No."

There's a brief pause before Kara speaks again.

"I guess I don't have my super hearing here," she sighs. "But you do!"

Alex tunes into the voices but she can't understand them. But if there are voices, it means that they must be close to something!

"Come on!" Alex says, breaking into a jog. Kara keeps up with her, although she feels a little breathless.

They come to a sudden stop when their path abruptly dips, obscuring the view ahead. They cautiously approach the edge of the incline, peering into what looks like a shallow crater.

Situated in the centre is a lone building. It's small, only a single storey and is guarded by two Drazans who are armed.

"We need to get down there!" Alex declares, making to begin their descent.

Kara grabs her wrist, yanking her back and causing her to almost lose her balance.

"Ow!" Alex exclaims, wriggling to free herself from her sister's grasp before gently rubbing her wrist.

"I still have my super strength!" The delight is evident on Kara's face.

"I know," Alex mutters, flexing her fingers.

"Listen Kara, we have to check that place out. What if it tells us where the antidote is?"

Kara gently puts a supportive hand on her sister's shoulder. She looks into her brown eyes, the ones that look like they carry the weight of the world and more. Kara supposes that they do, because Maggie is her world. "We will, Alex. But first, let's watch them, see whether there's a larger patrol. We still don't know what we're up against."

Alex nods. She can see the sense in Kara's argument, knows that it's something she would have come up with herself on another day with a clearer head.

They lie on their stomachs at the top of the crater on the edge of the incline. Alex searches through her backpack and pulls out a pair of binoculars. She leans on her elbows and holds them to her eyes.

There's a window on the side of the building and light creeps out. She can see movement inside. Both guards stand side on to them on opposite sides of the building and Alex presumes that at least one of them must be guarding the door.

"Do you have your x-ray vision?" Alex asks her sister. She's squinting at the building like she does when she's using her x-ray vision but shakes her head.

"No, but I can see that far. It's super sharp but I can't see through the wall." Kara sighs. "So what's the plan?"

Alex thinks. She mulls over different scenarios, different ways of getting into the building without alerting too much suspicion. If there's one small outpost here, there could be others dotted around.

Peering through the binoculars again, she says, "Those guards aren't patrolling as such but we still need to be careful. And we don't know how many are inside. I think we should go down there and look through the window before we charge in."

Kara doesn't like it but they don't have much choice. The plan is risky and it leaves them exposed but she does her best to appear calm and confident for Alex's sake. She can't let her own nerves cloud their chances of finding the antidote and saving Maggie, can't let her emotion affect Alex.

She promised herself before they left that she would bring Alex back safe, even if it meant that she put herself in danger. And if Alex sees even a glimmer of doubt in her sister's eyes...

All she knows is that she can't be the one to cause Alex even a second of hesitation or doubt because it could cost Maggie her life.

A little part of Kara still blames herself for what happened to Maggie and she doesn't know how she could ever look Alex in the eye again if she were the reason they failed their mission.

She thinks over Alex's suggestion for another moment until she nods her agreement.

Alex packs the binoculars back into the bag and slings it over her back as she stands up. She offers Kara her hand and pulls her to her feet. They both brush the sand off their legs and stomach before Alex, being the good older sister that she is, wipes away the light dusting that has settled on Kara's cheeks.

"Thanks," Kara says, smiling at her sister.

Despite the situation, Alex smiles back because Kara's smile is contagious.

"Now come on," Kara says, holding her hand out to Alex. "Let's go storm this outpost!"

/

How the Drazans don't notice Alex and Kara, neither of them will ever know. They have established that Kara can't fly and neither can Alex so, although they crouch a little as they quickly walk down the steep hill that leads into the crater, they're completely out in the open.

Neither Drazan sees them, though, and both women breathe a sigh of relief as they duck under the window.

"This planet is so different to ours," Kara says, a little winded, feeling adrenaline pumping through her veins. "But the security guards are just as stupid."

Alex has to stifle a laugh. She clutches her hand to her mouth to muffle the sound. When she composes herself, she slowly turns to face the window while Kara keeps her back to it, being the lookout.

"What do you see?" Kara whispers.

Alex takes in the whole room before answering. "There are two Drazans. They're sat at some sort of computer but I can't see what they're looking at. God, it's messy in there."

One of the Drazans inside the building shouts and Alex sees the door fly open as one of the guards enters.

"Wow, someone's angry," Kara mutters.

Alex frowns but continues to observe their heated exchange.

The three Drazans argue and Kara listens closely.

"Crap," Kara says, her body filling with panic.

"What is it?" Alex turns her back against the wall below the window, all her attention now on Kara.

Kara waves off her sister's fussing, gesturing for her to keep quiet.

Alex's frown deepens but she does as Kara asks. Her expression is mirrored in Kara's face, her signature crinkle forming between her brows.

"There's a new patrol coming by in ten minutes," Kara declares.

"What? How do you know?" Alex looks at Kara, perplexed.

"That's what they said, weren't you listening?"

"Kara, they're speaking Drazlen. I can hear them but I have no idea what they're saying." The realisation hits Alex. "Wait, you can tell what they're saying!"

Kara nods.

"This planet is full of surprises," Alex mutters. "Wait, what are they saying now?"

Kara listens to the Drazans who have begun to converse again. "They're coming outside!"

Alex tenses, dread enveloping every fibre of her being. She feels Kara's arm bash against hers and then her hand fumble until sister's fingers lock around hers. They shuffle from under the window to the side of the building and drop their backpacks to the ground.

As both of them stand, Kara peeps around the corner of the tiny building to see the three Drazans coming out the door.

"They're coming this way!" Kara whispers.

Both women prepare to fight as the Drazans round the corner.

They look straight at them.

Kara reacts first, raising her fist but remaining against the wall.

The looks on the Drazan's faces makes her falter.

They're not looking at her and Alex; it's more like they're looking through them.

Whatever they thought they saw, they quickly move on until their attention is grabbed by the two backpacks that have been cast aside.

 _They can't see us,_ Kara thinks. She looks down at her hand. It shimmers slightly, but it's her hand. Glancing at Alex, she can see that she shimmers too. Her outline flickers, giving her a grey appearance, the same colour as the wall.

Camouflage.

Kara tugs Alex's arm and gets her to look. As their eyes meet, she can see that Alex quickly comes to the same realisation.

But which of them is creating the illusion?

With the Drazan's backs turned, Alex lets go of Kara's hand.

It's Kara.

The moment the chain is broken, Alex's flickering outline disappears.

Kara quickly grabs her sister's hand again before the Drazans have time to notice, although she thinks that they haven't been very observant so far so what's to say that they'd have noticed Alex anyway?

The sisters watch as the Drazans pick up the bags, inspecting them closely, turning them over to gain a better understanding of what they're looking at.

Alex faces Kara and begins to gesture but never lets go of the Kryptonian's hand.

Kara watches as Alex signals her plan but has absolutely no idea what any of the gestures mean. Despite having worked with the DEO for a long time now, Kara has never really needed to be covert or stealthy; being able to fly into any situation often gives her the element of surprise but a billowing red cape is a major giveaway, so why even bother trying to be covert?

 _For situations such as this,_ she thinks, making a mental note to learn the meaning behind these motions when they get back.

Alex sees the confused look on Kara's face. When she realises that Kara doesn't understand, she simply raises her hand level with her neck, holds her fingers flat and motions from left to right.

Kara knows what that one means.

They charge at the Drazans, who are taken completely by surprise. Kara's super strength leaves two of them out cold while a few kicks from Alex leaves the third in a heap.

The fourth one, who had still been standing guard, hears the commotion and rounds the back of the building. It makes the mistake of hesitating and looking at its fallen comrades who will definitely be suffering from headaches when they wake up in a few hours.

But by then, Kara and Alex will be long gone.

Alex shoots the last Drazan with her blaster before they scoop up their backpacks and head into the building, noting that they only have a few minutes before the next guards arrive.

Alex makes a beeline for the computer but it's locked and magically knowing the password doesn't seem to be one of her powers on this planet.

"Look at this," Kara says, tearing down a sheet of paper from the wall. She doesn't have time to question where the paper has come from considering the fact that they haven't seen a single tree since they got here. She's too busy studying the information that the sheet conveys.

"It's a map," Alex says, taking it from Kara and scanning it. "Hey, you can understand them, can you read this?"

Kara takes the sheet back from her sister who begins to look through the mess of paper and books that overrun the room.

"It looks like tunnels," she says. "Wait, that's a Drozia leaf!"

Kara's discovery grabs Alex's attention and she peers over her shoulder to get a better look at the map.

"It looks like the tunnels lead to the leaf," Kara says. "But why would it be underground?"

Alex shrugs. "Maybe they grow it in a lab or something. The land out here is pretty barren."

"But what do they need it for?"

Alex shrugs her response. She opens a book that she has picked up. It's old and battered and a few pages fall out. Scooping them up, she looks at them, studying diagrams and what look like blueprints in the hope that they will help them to make better sense of the map or give them a greater understanding of where they can find the leaf, where they can find the thing that will save Maggie.

She doesn't need Kara to translate what she sees.

"Kara, the sand dunes, they aren't really sand dunes at all," Alex says, her heart beating fast and a relieved smile erupting across her face.

"They're the entrance to the tunnels that will lead us right to the Drozia leaf."


	5. The Road to Nowhere

"Boy, this hill is steep," Kara pants, doubling over to take a minute, her face contorting as a stitch stabs right across her abdomen.

She and Alex have just run out of the crater knowing that the next guard is due to arrive any minute now.

"I'm starting to like this planet," Alex jokes because, no matter how hard and how long she trains at the DEO, she's never able to keep up with Kara's alien physiology and is always the breathless one after a fight.

Kara sends a fake pout her way, which causes Alex to raise a small smile.

Alex can see that Kara is still trying to keep her spirits up and she's grateful for it. Maggie is still at the forefront of her mind, though, and she desperately wishes she had some way of knowing how she is right now.

Is she somehow responsive? Is she comfortable?

Is she alive?

"Do you have the map?"

Kara's voice suddenly cuts through Alex's clouded thoughts.

She pulls it from the hidden pocket of her navy suit and lets it unfurl. It flaps slightly in the wind so Alex keeps a tight grip on it.

Kara stands next to her sister, pulls out a flashlight from her backpack and peers at the map. "There, that's the closest entrance," she says, pointing at a little circle.

Alex peers in the direction of the supposed entrance, although it's difficult to see much in the dwindling light. The map is taking them between different sand dunes and into even more unknown territory.

"You ready for this?" Alex asks, folding up the map.

"Always," comes Kara's reply with a nod.

/

"Where the hell is this entrance?" Alex almost shouts, frustrated.

The moon now sits high in the sky, but it's dark blue in colour and so offers little in the way of light. Alex and Kara have been walking for over an hour and have still found nothing and thought it best not to use their flashlights to avoid detection.

**20:11:57**

They haven't seen another outpost or even another Drazan, and by now they are probably on high alert.

Maybe not seeing anyone or anything is a good sign, Alex thinks. She has to stay positive.

"I won't be far now, I'm sure," Kara says reassuringly.

"What use is your long sight if we don't have night vision too?" Alex grumbles.

Kara stops in her tracks. She flings her backpack to the ground and begins to rummage through it. "A-ha!" With a huge smile, she proudly produces a set of night vision goggles.

"You gotta give it to Winn, he is good," Alex says, grabbing the set from her own bag and wondering why neither of them thought to check before.

Alex secures them onto her head and peers into the darkness. The world looks as green as the daytime sky, but everything is crystal clear.

"There!" She declares, pointing into the distance.

"I don't see anything," Kara says, following Alex's finger. "Ugh, my sight mustn't work very well in the dark. It's like my powers are all over the place."

"It's right up ahead," Alex states, breaking into a run.

It takes Kara by surprise and she lags behind her sister. When they finally stop, Kara slings her bag into the ground and flops down next to it.

"You said... Right up ahead..." She pants, ripping off her goggles, lying back with one arm over her eyes and an arm resting across her stomach as it rises and falls quickly. "That's not what I call… 'Right up ahead'."

Alex smirks a little at Kara as the Kryptonian finally sits up. She offers Kara a hand and pulls her to her feet. Kara brushes as much sand and dust from her suit and cape as she can before grabbing her backpack.

She quickly fixes the goggles back over her eyes.

"You good?" Alex asks.

Kara nods and offers her hand to Alex.

The elder Danvers takes it as she and Kara properly look at the entrance to the cave for the first time.

"This seems too easy," Alex declares uneasily. "Why would you leave an entrance unguarded?"

Kara shrugs. "Maybe they're inside? Or we could just be over thinking it."

Alex looks in her sister's direction but says nothing. Instead, she squeezes her hand.

When Kara squeezes it back, Alex knows that she's ready to go into the cave.

Into the unknown.

Alex and Kara shine their flashlights into the dark cave.

It feels ominous and both women are a little anxious as they slowly step into it, making the effort to be as quiet as they can.

"Watch your step," Alex says in agent mode. She keeps her flashlight shining ahead while Kara follows her sister's commands by training hers to the ground and stepping in Alex's footprints.

The tunnel walls are various shades of orange and yellow that blend and swirl into each other, creating beautiful patterns.

"It's so pretty," Kara mutters, raising her light and aiming it at the wall. She traces her fingertips along it, feels its roughness under them.

Suddenly, she bumps into Alex, almost sending her tumbling forward.

"What're you-"

"Shhh!"

Alex holds her arm out protectively in front of Kara in order to stop her in her tracks as she silences her.

Kara looks at Alex before glancing around her to see what it is that's caused her to stop. When she can't see or hear anything unusual she frowns.

"Do you hear something?" Kara whispers, glancing behind her to check that there are no Drazans following them.

"Yeah," Alex replies quietly, her expression impossible to read. "It sounds like… Water."

Alex continues to listen for a moment. She closes her eyes to shut off her other senses as she makes sure that they don't have company lying in wait for them up ahead.

"I think we're all clear," she declares, starting to slowly walk forward again.

Kara stays close to her sister. "I don't like this, Alex," she whispers worriedly. "I don't like this at all." She hates that she doesn't have her super hearing. Knowing exactly what Alex can hear would make her feel so much better. She hadn't realised that she relies so much on it until now.

"Me neither," Alex agrees, moving her hair behind her ear.

"How long do you think this tunnel is?" Kara asks, her eyes still trained in the direction they've just come from.

"Which one?"

Kara brow crinkles as she turns around. She and Alex are motionless as they stare at their newest problem.

The cave forks into two completely different directions.

"This isn't on the map!" Alex declares, yanking it out of her pocket and unfolding it as fast as she can. "Look!"

Alex is right. The cave they've chosen is supposed to be pretty much a straight line into the Drazan's bunkers.

Alex checks her watch which only causes her heart rate to increase further.

**19:36:41**

They don't have time for this.

They don't have time for complications and literal forks in the road.

They don't have time to hesitate and be indecisive.

"This way," Alex says without a second thought, choosing the right hand path.

"How do you know?" Kara asks, following her sister's lead.

Alex shrugs and answers honestly, her voice sounding a little unsure.

"I don't."

Almost an hour later, Alex and Kara find themselves right back at the divergence of the tunnel.

Alex had chosen wrong.

They walked and walked until they came to a sudden dead end.

A dusty orange wall rose up in front of them, but they had refused to believe that that was all it was.

Alex had patted every inch of the wall, hoping that there was some sort of secret entrance.

But when neither Alex nor Kara could find anything to suggest that this was the way in, Alex had lost it.

She let out a deep guttural roar, which shocked Kara, before beating her fist against the wall, venting all her anger and frustration and worry that had begun to build and weigh her down, even if she hadn't completely realised it.

Kara had cautiously approached Alex, grabbed her tightly clenched fist and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She pulled her into a tight embrace, allowing Alex's head to rest against her shoulder as she sobbed, her chest heaving with every hitched breath.

Kara had soothingly rubbed her other hand up and down Alex's back in an effort to calm her down. Without warning, Alex collapsed to the ground and began to cry harder, so Kara had held her, stroking her hair and rocking her gently until her wailing turned to sobs and sobs turned into sniffles.

"This is not the end, Alex," Kara had said strongly, placing a kiss into her sister's hair. "We're going to find another way in, I promise you. We won't give up."

Alex had said nothing. She looked up into Kara's blue eyes, her own still shiny with tears. She wiped away the tracks that were left on her cheeks before moving to stand.

She had taken a deep breath as Kara picked up their backpacks and flashlights before they headed back the way they came.

"Can you still hear water?" Kara asks, now taking the lead.

"No, it's gone," Alex mumbles, her feet scuffing against the ground.

"Wait, look!" Kara exclaims. Her flashlight shows that they've reached the end of the tunnel.

This time, they're not met by a wall.

Instead, the tunnel opens into a little cove, half of which is a pool of water. It's strikingly blue, a similar colour to Kara's eyes and it glows a little, almost as if it's underlit.

Alex and Kara take it all in. Above the pool, there's a small hole in the top of the cave and the navy moon almost fills it and is perfectly reflected in the still water.

"Wow," Kara says, voicing exactly what Alex is thinking. "It's just like Mako Island. Do you think we'll turn into mermaids?" She tries to keep the conversation light as they stand on the edge of the pool and peer into the water.

H20 had been one of Alex's favourite TV shows when she was younger and Kara had become just as engrossed when she arrived on Earth. The pair spent hours watching it over and over again; Alex's science brain was fascinated by the bioengineering of the girl's tails, even though she knew it was impossible – although with the amount of tech the DEO owned, maybe it wasn't anymore – and Kara was simply fascinated by the thought of people having tails and fins because mermaids didn't even exist as a concept on Krypton.

"I guess we'll see-"

Alex freezes.

She hears footsteps.

And voices.

They're getting louder.

Getting closer.

"Kara, someone's coming!" Alex announces, but it's too late.

Two armed Drazans come charging into the little cove. They yell something in Drazlen and Kara shouts something back but raises her hands in surrender when one of the Drazans aims its gun right at her.

The second one turns its attention to Alex so she follows Kara's lead.

The first Drazan says something again, but Kara has her back to Alex so the elder Danvers can't see her reaction. Even though she doesn't understand what Kara is saying, she can tell by the tone of her voice that she's trying to reason with them.

The second Drazan is now more focused on what Kara is saying as she argues back and forth with both of them.

Although Alex has faced worse situations, not getting out of this one would have the most serious consequences of any ever.

While both Drazans' attention is completely centred on Kara, Alex slowly begins to lower one hand towards the blaster that is holstered on her right hip.

She keeps her eyes firmly focused on the exchange happening in front of her as they dart between Kara and the Drazans.

Alex's hand wraps around her blaster, but at that exact moment the second Drazan notices.

It aims its blaster at Alex, who quickly draws hers in retaliation.

And then everything happens so fast.

The Drazans yell something again.

Kara's eyes widen in fear, in panic.

"No!" She exclaims.

She throws herself directly in front of Alex, whose brain barely even has time to register what is unfolding in front of her.

A bright blue ball of light surges from the gun and connects with Kara's chest. It sends her flying through the air in a blur of blue and red before she splashes into the pool of water.

"KARA!" Alex screams, her heart plunging into her stomach.

She can't help her sister because the other Drazan begins to throw punch after punch in her direction. It's easy enough for her to block and counter; her DEO training far outweighs anything the Drazan can throw at her, so with adrenaline and rage on top the Drazan stands no chance.

When it crumples to the ground, Alex takes a deep breath.

But then her panic comes flooding back because the fight isn't over yet.

It's far from over.

Kara hasn't resurfaced and the other Drazan is gone.


	6. One Step Closer

"KARA!" Alex screams again as a single bubble of air rises to the water's surface with a little pop.

Her voice echoes around the little cave as her internal panic intensifies with every passing second.

Her eyes dart around, desperately hoping to see a blonde head pop up, to see that her sister is okay.

When it doesn't, she decides that there's nothing else for it.

Alex dives into the water, subconsciously figuring that it must be deep because otherwise she'd be able to see Kara.

She fights the water's cold, stinging attack to open her eyes and the sight before her makes her stomach churn.

The Drazan has its claw wrapped around Kara's neck, pinning her to the bottom of the pool. Alex can see her fighting, trying to wriggle free and flailing her legs in a desperate effort to make any sort of contact with the Drazan.

But she's weakening and with every failed effort, she slips further into unconsciousness.

Alex has to act quickly.

She swims frantically towards her sister.

As she draws closer, she can see the panic in her crystal blue eyes before they begin to slowly droop closed, although she never gives up her fight.

Alex, who doesn't have super strength, figures that it's probably pretty pointless of her to try to punch the attacker, but she doesn't know what else to do.

She just knows that she has to try because she can't lose Kara and Maggie, especially not at the same time, especially not in two different places.

Alex clenches her fist and unleashes it on the Drazan. It feels like it connects with its face in slow motion and for a second she thinks she's done enough to at least get its attention.

And she's partly right.

The Drazan turns its focus to Alex while never relaxing its grip on Kara.

Alex can see the rage in its glowing eyes and before she even realises what's happening, she's flung violently against the wall.

Pain radiates through her back, aching through her spine and her head throbs. Her vision is a little blurry so she blinks and blinks in an effort to get her eyes to focus through the hazy blue of the water.

And then she realises what she's just done.

As she collided forcefully with the wall, she gasped.

She should be drowning, choking on lungs full of water.

But she's not.

Hesitantly, she takes another breath. Cool water fills her lungs, but she doesn't suffocate.

She can breathe under water.

But Kara can't.

And now her body's failing as she stills, hear heart rate slowing almost to a stop in Alex's ears.

_Think, Alex._

Her gun. She yanks it from the holster on her hip and takes aim through fuzzy eyes, her heart beating heavily in her chest.

 _C'mon,_ she thinks.

She can't get a clean shot and doesn't know whether Kara is bulletproof here. But she has to do it because if she doesn't Kara will definitely die.

_Shit, shit, shit._

Alex pulls the trigger.

/

The Drazan's angry eyes glaze over as red blood begins to mingle with the blue water. Its hold on Kara loosens and Alex uses every last ounce of energy to get over to Kara as quickly as possible. She scoops her sister into her arms and kicks her legs as hard as she can, willing the water's surface to get closer, willing Kara to hold on for just another few seconds. Alex finds herself taking a deep breath out of habit as cool air tickles her cheeks before she climbs out of the water, never letting go of Kara's hand.

Alex grabs Kara's other hand and heaves her head first out of the water and onto the sandy ledge.

"Kara," she utters, panicked, shaking her sister's shoulders and her arms. "Kara!"

Kara doesn't respond. Her lips have turned a little blue and the colour has drained from her skin.

Alex has never seen her looking like this, so pale and fragile and breakable.

_So human._

Alex hovers her ear over Kara's mouth.

She's definitely not breathing, but Alex can feel a weak, faltering pulse when she presses two fingers to Kara's neck; she can hear it like slow unnerving drumming in her hypersensitive ears.

Kara's not dead, so there's still hope.

Alex begins compressions on her chest, counting aloud because her brain to too scrambled to be trusted to remember where it's up to.

One, two, three, four, five.

"C'mon, Kara," she mutters, each compression getting harder and more frantic.

Six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

"Don't leave me Kara, not now. Don't do this to me."

Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.

"I need you. I need you to help me save Maggie."

Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty.

"I made a promise to Lena that I'd bring you home. Don't make me break my promise."

Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five.

"I can't lose you both."

Twenty-six.

"Don't give up on me."

Twenty-seven.

"Because I've never given up on you."

Twenty-eight.

"Not now, not ever."

Twenty-nine.

"Earth needs Supergirl."

Thirty.

"And I need my sister!"

Kara lies motionless, unresponsive, expressionless.

A million different emotions fly through Alex's body, each one fighting the other as they all threaten to consume her until only two simmer at the surface.

Her eyes well with tears that stream uncontrollably down her cheeks as desolation envelopes her.

But the anger that has been building for the last twenty-four hours since Maggie was shot bubbles through her veins like molten lava. She closes her fist, clenching it tightly before raising it above her head.

"I need you because we're stronger together!"

She brings her fist down, slamming it into Kara's chest, her action shocking her in the process.

Alex watches anxiously, completely terrified, until Kara's eyes flutter before she begins to cough and splutter, water spilling out of her mouth. She gasps for breath as she tips herself onto her side, her left arm grasping for Alex, for the person who represents safety.

"Kara!" Alex exclaims, relief laced through her shaky voice. "Oh, my God, Kara!"

Kara continues to splutter, so Alex scoops her into her arms and gently pats her back before rubbing it reassuringly, calmingly. "Hey, I'm here. I got you, I got you." She says softly.

Kara's big blue eyes flutter around until they lock onto Alex's. They look scared, alarmed until they find the reassuring brown of her sisters' staring right back into hers. "Alex?" She stutters, her voice hoarse and raspy. "Are you okay?"

Alex can't help but laugh in disbelief, and a little in awe at how Kara can be thinking of anyone other than herself right now. "Am I okay? Seriously, Kara? Are you okay?"

Kara nods gently as pink slowly begins to return to her cheeks and her breathing regulates.

"Then I'm okay too."

/

Kara shivers in the cool night air, her suits both finally almost dry despite the lack of air temperature.

Alex, being the big sister that she is, has wrapped Kara in a blanket that Winn had packed for them and has asked her almost non-stop whether she's okay, whether she needs anything.

Kara keeps reassuring her sister that she's fine, but Alex can see her eyelids drooping closed, as hard as she tries to fight it.

"Kara, you really need to rest," Alex says, stroking Kara's damp blonde hair.

Kara shakes her head. "No, Alex, we can't stop now! We don't have time!"

Alex glances at her watch and sees that they've got just under eighteen hours left before they need to be back home. "We've got ages. Please, just rest."

"But Alex-"

"No," Alex buts in, waving away Kara's protests. "You were seconds away from death, Kara. You're lucky to even be here."

Kara's big blue eyes stare tiredly into Alex's. "I'm even luckier to have you to always have my back."

The elder Danvers pulls Kara's head towards her shoulder and wraps an arm around her, feels her shivers as they momentarily consume her body.

"Just for a few minutes," Kara mutters quietly into Alex's shoulder, knowing that she isn't going to win.

Alex presses a gentle, reassuring kiss into Kara's hair as her breathing slows and she quickly slips into unconsciousness.

/

Kara can't breathe.

Her throat closes, gets tighter and tighter the more she tries to fight.

Her eyes focus on the figure looming in front of her.

Its grin drips with venom, its eyes wild with rage.

Kara wriggles but it only serves to make her enemy grasp her tighter.

"Kara?"

Kara's eyes dart around to find the source of her name.

"Kara?"

She looks and looks and looks.

She can't find the owner of the familiar voice but never stops searching.

Until her eyes fall on something unexpected. Something that might just take them to where they need to go.

Kara looks back towards her enemy, but the Drazan is gone.

Confused, she begins to swim upwards.

She swims and swims and swims.

But the longer she swims, the further away from she surface she seems to get.

Panic begins to set in and Kara screams. The sound is muffled by the liquid surrounding her.

Kara's lungs fill with water and she begins to sink.

"KARA!"

The Kryptonian's eyes snap open as she sits up quickly, her breathing rushed. She looks to her right to see Alex staring at her, concern plastered across her features.

"It was just a dream," Kara whispers, relief flooding her system as she brings her hand to her head. She takes a moment to gather herself. "How long was I out?"

"An hour."

"Alex! That only leaves seventeen hours!"

Alex nods solemnly. "We can do it, but only if we can find a way in."

An image flashes through Kara's mind.

It's a metal door at the bottom of the pool, the thing that she saw in her dream, and she knows exactly what it means.

"We can, Alex. I know where the entrance is."

/

"Are you ready?" Alex asks as she treads water. She sees Kara nod and isn't convinced that she even believes it herself, but she knows that her sister doesn't want to let her down.

"Three, two, one…"

Kara pulls an oxygen tank over her mouth before she and Alex dive towards the bottom of the pool, their filled backpacks helping to weigh them down as they descend.

The second Kara claps eyes on the metal door from her dream, she begins to swim towards it, Alex following her closely.

As they approach, they notice a small rectangle sticking out of the wall.

 _Crap,_ Kara thinks.

How are they supposed to use a fingerprint scanner?

Alex wracks her brain.

She spins around and looks behind her, scanning the area for anything that might help them.

The Drazan she shot is still there.

Thinking quickly and moving even faster, she wraps her arms around the Drazan and Kara grabs its feet as they work together to drag it towards the door.

Alex grabs the Drazan's hand.

This shouldn't work, but it's the only choice they've got.

She places one of its fingers on the scanner and she and Kara stare expectantly at the door.

 _Please, please, please,_ Alex thinks.

The door suddenly slides open to reveal a small chamber. It's lined with lead, or at least it looks like lead.

Kara's just grateful that it's not Kryptonite.

After exchanging a small glance, Alex and Kara swim inside, causing the door to close behind them.

Alex can hear Kara's heartbeat accelerate a little as her blue eyes watch the door close, and Alex is incredibly grateful that Kara can't hear hers right now because it's thumping twice as fast to the point that it almost drowns out Kara's in her ears.

The sisters look at each other, waiting for something to happen.

A small light glows green above their heads and the water beings to filter out until all that's left is the little splatters that drip from Kara's cape.

Suddenly, a gust of warm air whips their hair and stings their faces.

When it stops, they're both completely dry. It's as if they were never even in the pool.

"We could use one of these for rainy days at home," Kara jokes lightly, and it relieves Alex that Kara seems to be a little more like herself.

"What now-"

Before Kara can finish, a panel slides sideways in the opposing wall, the little whoosh it makes seeming loud in Alex's ears.

The sisters look at the doorway before them, to one another and then back again.

Kara moves to step forward but Alex stops her, putting her arm out protectively.

Kara is tired and drained from her fight so Alex wants to do everything she can to protect her, to make sure that she isn't in any more unnecessary danger.

What Alex won't admit to herself is that she's tired too and a little worse for wear, so she takes the lead and stealthily inches forward slowly, poking her head through the doorway.

Kara watches her expression as she glances from left to right, sees the focus in her eyes.

"All clear," Alex whispers, beckoning Kara forward.

Together, they step through the doorway and into a brightly-lit hallway that looks like the inside of a space ship from a futuristic sci-fi movie.

"We did it, Alex," Kara says, feeling a thousand times better now that they're getting somewhere.

"Almost," Alex half agrees, not willing to let them get ahead of themselves.

But neither woman can deny the sense of relief that washes over them as they realise that they're one step closer to saving Maggie.


	7. Slipping Away

Maggie stares into a void of nothingness. She blinks through the stinging sensation that burns her straining eyes as she waits for them to focus in the darkness, but they don't, because, she quickly realises, there's nothing to see. She's alone and she doesn't know why, or where everyone has gone.  
It's like she's drifting in the gentle current of the deep sea with every ebb fighting its equal flow to tug lightly at her, willing her to follow it. The sensation of weightlessness tickles her stomach and makes her heart flutter in her chest.

Her wavy hair billows behind her as the water weaves its fingers through soft brunette strands and she studies her fingertips, noting the way that they seem to wrinkle more and more the longer she stares at them. She doesn't need to breathe because the water does it for her.

There's a little niggling feeling in the back of Maggie's mind that screams at her that something is seriously wrong. She doesn't know what she's doing in the water or how long she's been there but her mind is hazy and her body is filled with a warm fuzzy tingling and no matter how impossible all of it should be, Maggie doesn't panic. She feels floaty and light and free and even through the fog she senses that this is the most relaxed she's been for a long time.

Maggie doesn't put up a fight as her eyelids begin to droop closed because she's tired. Despite its depth, the water around her is so warm and comforting as it cradles her and rocks her gently, lulling her to sleep. Her brain wills her to fight to stay awake but her body is weary and unresponsive, so she doesn't.

Almost asleep, Maggie's fatigued limbs are finally able to fully loosen into the water's gentle embrace when a loud click pierces her eardrums, shattering the silence that has enveloped her for so long. Her eyes snap open at the noise and search wildly for its source but find nothing.

_Click._

Maggie twists to look behind her, though she can't pinpoint exactly where the sound is coming from.

_Click._

It's everywhere.

_Click._

It's in her ears, it's in her brain, it's all around her.

It ticks regularly like a timer and she wants to swim, to get away from it but her body still won't listen.

Maggie suddenly gets the feeling that there's something sinister lurking in the shadows, cloaked in the darkness. The water around her unexpectedly turns cold and she shivers, her chattering teeth sending vibrations up into her skull and her bottom lip quivers uncontrollably as she wraps her arms across her stomach in an effort to cling to the dwindling warmth that now escapes her, and as a method of comfort.

The repetitive click click click stops but is replaced by something else, something that finally makes sense to Maggie in this confusing underwater world.

Alex.

Alex's voice glides through the water and is like sweet music to her ears.

_"_ _I love you, Maggie Sawyer, forever."_

These six simple words make Maggie forget the cold that stings against her skin. Those six words tug her just a little further from her suffocating haze because she strains to see the person they've come from.

_"_ _It's my turn to save you."_

Save? Maggie doesn't need saving, especially if Alex is with her because everything is okay when she's with Alex…

Isn't it?

She was happy before in the water's cocoon too, though its sudden change in nature now makes her unsure, leaves a growing feeling of unease in place of the butterflies in her stomach.

_"_ _See you around, Sawyer."_

That's not right. Everything feels wrong again, so wrong. She can't see Alex, doesn't know why she's saying the only words Maggie never wanted to hear her say so despondently, so seriously; almost finally. Alex sounds lost and heartbroken and they're feelings Maggie had hoped she would never involuntarily inflict upon her beautiful girlfriend, whom she had promised to love forever. But she doesn't remember doing anything to cause them and that only confuses Maggie more. She doesn't know why Alex is leaving or where she's going or whether she's even here, but Maggie wants to, needs to because she wants to be wherever her beautiful girlfriend is.

Alex is home, Alex is safety, Alex is love.

Alex is her everything, her forever.

Alex isn't here.

An overwhelming sense of panic replaces the warm fuzz that her entire body had succumbed to, though her mind fights it like her life depends on it.

Maggie searches for Alex, stares wide-eyed into the darkness.

And suddenly she's there; she is right in front of her. Her outline shimmers and drifts in and out of focus but she's there. She's wearing a navy body suit that Maggie hasn't seen before, her gun sitting in its holster on her hip and she's doing the only thing that the detective can't seem to; she's swimming.

Refusing to blink in case her love disappears again, Maggie watches as Alex frantically swims downwards. She's desperately fighting the water's resistance to get to something…

To someone.

Kara is pinned to the water's bed by a huge, angry alien. She thrashes and battles against it, but the alien, who looks like one from the park, doesn't relent.

A small switch triggers in Maggie's drowsy brain.

_The park…_

She knows that the park is important, that whatever has brought her here is because of what happened there. But everything is blank. She has no memory of what happened in the park, if anything did happen at all...

Alex finally reaches the alien, who has her sister in its horrifying grasp. Maggie watches as she clenches her fist and retracts her arm, ready to unleash the strongest attack she can manage under water.

As her fist connects with the alien, it flails its free arm and flings her against something hard, something that Maggie thinks looks like rock.

Alex cries out in pain as her body collides heavily with the wall. The muffled sound cuts through Maggie like a blade, leaves a sting of shock permeating through every vein, every muscle, every beat of her heart, but she doesn't feel any of it because now Alex is gone, consumed by the darkness.

"ALEX!"

Maggie screams her girlfriend's name but the sound is stifled by the dense water that surrounds her. She reaches out towards where Alex had been, just out of reach, willing her to come back. Her body suddenly feels deprived of oxygen; everything is failing her. She wants to breathe but she can't, she wants to get out of the water but she doesn't know how, she wants to help Alex but she's gone.

Alex would never leave her if she didn't have to. Maybe she didn't choose to. Either way, she's disappeared without telling Maggie why.

The detective inadvertently retracts her arm and pulls her knees into her chest, feeling trapped, like a prisoner in her own body, like a captive of the sea. She suddenly wants to make herself as tiny as possible, to curl up into a ball because she's all alone again, except something still tells her that she's not.

The feeling of weightlessness that had cocooned her earlier is now entirely gone.

Now the water is fighting her. It seeps into her lungs as it tightens its grasp around her. Suddenly, she's heavy under its crushing weight. She begins to splutter, each inhalation only filling her struggling lungs as they succumb to the power of the water.

It's got her right where it wants her.

She tries to fight but the water only clutches more and more, dragging her down, constricting her throat from the inside and choking her violently. She's sinking, sinking, sinking, falling impossibly further into the cold depths of the shadows where she fears that no one will ever find her.

She's been drowning for a long time, she just didn't know it.

/

Lena sits by Maggie's bed, her legs tucked beneath her as she checks her watch.

**18:07:24**

She feels like it's all she's done since Kara and Alex left what seems like forever ago. She feels useless, wishes there was something she could do to help Maggie right now. Even knowing what to prepare before they bring the Drozia leaf back would settle the unease that sits heavily in her stomach.

"All we can do for now is have hope," Eliza had told her a few minutes ago before she disappeared to go get them coffee. "And the belief that our girls will make it back. They're fighters, they always do."

God, Lena hopes that Eliza is right.

Rubbing her eyes tiredly, Lena stifles a yawn and looks up to where Maggie lies. Her ears tune in to the click click click of the ventilator as it fights the rising odds to keep the tiny detective alive. She wills Maggie to fight too, wishes that she could help her to fight.

Lena likes Maggie. Sure, she wasn't too keen when she'd arrested her last year, but a lot has changed in that time and Lena has come to love Maggie like a big sister. She pretends that she's all tough and hard but on the inside she's just as soft and puppy-like as their Danvers girls. Her adorable dimples are the big giveaway, no matter how hard she may sometimes try to hide them. Even Lena can't help but smile when she sees them; to her, they're almost – but not quite – as cute as Kara's crinkle and pout.

Lena especially likes Maggie's fiery side; it's something that she sees a lot in herself and it's definitely needed when those sisters refuse to back down from a fight. She usually takes Lena's side, for which the CEO is incredibly grateful because someone has to tell them how stupid they're being. There's a lot of fire in such a tiny body. The detective knows how to handle herself too and doesn't take crap from anyone, much like Lena.

Lena admires Maggie's drive and determination, the way that she doesn't barrel into anything dangerously headfirst. She analyses the situation and arrives at a solution and is an equal match for pretty much anyone in the field. Someone has to stay level-headed around here when Alex can't.

Lena's favourite thing about Maggie is the love she has for those around her. Lena sees the way she looks at Alex and completely understands it because she knows that she looks at Kara the same way. Maggie would do anything to protect her girls; Lena thinks that she would go so far as to sacrifice herself if it would save them, especially Alex. Of course, Alex and Kara would never let her do that, though if Maggie were here, Lena knows that the detective would be freaking out at the thought of them putting themselves in so much danger, leaving themselves so vulnerable and alone on another planet just for her.

One of the other traits that Lena has noticed about the older woman is her resilience. No matter how tough things get, and they're almost always tough with her and Alex doing the jobs that they do, she always comes back fighting. Although this may just be her toughest fight yet, Lena knows that Maggie is capable of bouncing back, though only if Alex and Kara make it back themselves.

Lena, Kara, Alex and Maggie could all lose everything, lose each other forever over the next eighteen hours.

And Lena would be alone again.

_Don't be so selfish, Luthor,_ Lena scolds herself.

With a disapproving shake of her head, the CEO picks up her book. It feels so wrong with everything that's happening – or not, as is the case on her end – but what else can she do? She doesn't want to leave Maggie on her own; in a way it comforts her to know that someone is constantly keeping an eye on the detective.

Her eyes skim over the words she's tried to read twice today already, but they still don't digest them as her eyelids threaten to droop closed. Lena gives up when her head, which is propped up by the back of the chair she's sat in, lolls against her shoulder and jolts her awake.

"You really ought to get some rest, Miss Luthor," J'onn says as he enters the med bay and sees Lena battling to stay awake.

Lena throws the weighty book back onto the bedside table and sighs. Her eyes are starting to sting from all the rubbing she's been doing. "Lena, please," She tells J'onn, not for the first time.

"I'm sure Eliza will stay with her," J'onn adds upon seeing Lena's hesitation to leave. "The on-call rooms are down the hall, second right. I've had one made up for you."

Lena doesn't move from her comfortable position. She looks from J'onn to Maggie and then at the monitors on the other side of Maggie's bed that show Alex and Kara's vitals. "Do you think they're okay? I mean, we know that they're alive from their trackers, but..."

Lena lets her question trail off and be consumed by the relative quiet of the room. She can't bring herself to say that just because they're alive, it doesn't mean that they're okay. She hates thinking like that but she can't shake the thought from her head.

J'onn takes the seat beside Lena but doesn't give her an immediate answer. He doesn't want to admit that he's worried about Alex and Kara, not even to himself, and he certainly doesn't want to project his fears onto Lena unnecessarily. He can already see the worry etched into her features and can sense the anxiety in her mind even without reading it. After a few moments he gives his honest answer. "I don't know." He shifts uncomfortably in his seat. "I wish I did, I wish I could read Alex's mind from here just to know that they're okay. I don't want to tell you not to worry, that would be… naive of me and an insult to you, but I trust that those girls are doing everything they can to get back to you and Maggie."

Lena looks up at the unconscious detective and lets out a long breath she hadn't even realised she was holding. "I just feel so useless. They're out there risking their lives, there are agents fighting the invasion outside right now and what am I doing?" Lena throws her hands up in the air in frustration, looks at the ceiling as she tilts her head back. "I'm reading one of Alex's books about biomedical engineering like it's going to solve all our problems."

"Lena," J'onn says, his voice gentle but assertive. He places a reassuring hand on Lena's shoulder and waits until her tired green eyes flit up to his. He's never seen the CEO so stressed and flustered. "You're forgetting who you are. Your time will come; you have your part to play and just because you're not out there engaging in battle, it doesn't mean that it's any less important."

Lena bites her lip and nods. She has to fight the tears that begin to well up in her eyes as all her worry and stress and frustration finally threaten to overcome her.

Even Lena Luthor needs to cry every once in a while.

But today is not that day, she tells herself.

"I need to return to the front line," J'onn says, getting to his feet. "Rest, you never know when you might need your strength."

"I will, in a minute," Lena says, though they both know that it isn't likely.

J'onn offers Lena a small smile before making his way towards the entrance to the med bay.

"Thank you, J'onn," Lena adds as he reaches the doorway. He nods his head before disappearing.

Lena shifts her legs and feet from beneath her; they're starting to become numb and tingly and uncomfortable from sitting in the same position for too long. Heaving another sigh, she begrudgingly picks up Alex's bioengineering book and flicks it open to a random page, unwilling to try to read the same piece of text for a fourth time.

She begins to study functional vascularised lung grafts, getting lost in the incredible world of biomedical science – and compiling a mental list of things that she can research further and potentially develop into new and exciting projects at L-Corp – when a sudden high-pitched repetitive shriek yanks her from her deep thoughts.

Lena looks up to see Maggie's body flailing on the med bed. Her arms beat hard against its metal sides, her legs judder at its foot and the blanket that has been protecting her from the DEO's cool air conditioning slips to the ground and is left in a crumpled heap.

"J'ONN! DOCTOR HAMILTON!" Lena bellows as she instinctively shoots up from her chair. Alex's book slips from her lap and lies open, faced down and immediately forgotten. The CEO is a little uncomfortable on her feet, her pins and needles still making them feel like they're asleep, but she puts all of her effort into restraining Maggie as much as she can manage on her own. She pins her wrists to the bed. "J'onn!" Her heart races in her chest as the detective unknowingly fights her restraint, the reassuring regular click of her ventilator now long gone.

As she waits for help to arrive – and prays that J'onn hasn't left yet – Lena comes to a sudden heart-stopping, sickening realisation.

Maggie's skin in impenetrable to everything except a Drozia needle and the regular heart monitors won't work on her either, so despite her deteriorating state and the seizure that has overcome her again, that unrelenting beeping isn't coming from her.

It's coming from Kara and Alex.

/

Eliza exits the elevator as the doors ping open, four extremely hot and incredibly strong cups of coffee in a holder in her right hand and a paper bag in her left.

"Ah, Winslow," she says kindly upon seeing the agent sitting slumped at his desk, his head resting tiredly in his folded arms as his eyes study his computer. He straightens to attention and fixes his tie when he hears Eliza's voice. "Here." She offers him a coffee and the bag as he tries to hide a long yawn.

Winn's eyes brighten a little upon seeing the paper DEO bag. It usually means cinnamon rolls or chocolate-chip cookies but right now he could eat anything. "Oh, Eliza, you know me so well," Winn exclaims gratefully, pulling out a box of chocolate brownies. They're his absolute favourite. "Thank you," he splutters with his moth full.

Eliza offers him a warm smile as he stuffs two more brownies into his already-full mouth. "How are things looking?"

Winn's chewing slows as he realises the negative answer he's going to have to give her. He gulps before responding. "Not great. Our agents and the NCPD are doing all they can, but without Alex and Supergirl we're not nearly as effective at fighting the Drazans. Their advanced weaponry is difficult to defend against."

Eliza nods solemnly.

"These brownies are great," Winn says in an effort to lighten the obvious change in atmosphere before reaching for another.

"J'ONN! DOCTOR HAMILTON!"

Eliza and Winn's heads snap towards the sound of Lena's panicked voice that echoes through the hallways from the med bay. They look at each other, concern etched across their faces as they see J'onn practically sprinting through the main room towards the medical area.

Momentarily stunned, Eliza and Winn rush to follow. The scene unfolding in front of them as they step into the med bay is pretty much the worst they could imagine.

Lena has Maggie's arms pinned to the bed while J'onn holds her legs.

"What's happening?" Eliza almost shouts. That's when she sees the screens beside Maggie going berserk. The thin green lines zig-zag frantically as the tiny heart symbols below them show that Alex and Kara's hearts are beating faster and faster and faster.

"What the hell?" Winn splutters.

"Is that… Is that _water_?" Lena asks worriedly, looking over to Doctor Hamilton. Liquid spills from Maggie's mouth and trickles down her cheeks and chin. It looks like water but there seems to be something more to it. When the light catches it, Lena can see hints of green laced into its usually transparent state.

"Not exactly, but I'll have to take a sample," the doctor responds. "We need to get this ventilator out of her first. She'll drown."

Lena responds immediately. She needs something else to focus on, to take her mind off Kara and Alex's blaring monitors because she knows that right now the only person she can help is Maggie; there's nothing she can do for Kara and Alex and she refuses to fail at helping at least one of them.

"Someone take her hands," Lena instructs. Eliza quickly covers the distance between the doorway and Maggie's bed, her eyes flitting between the detective and her daughters' vitals the whole time.

When Eliza has hold of Maggie, Lena secures the detective's head so that Doctor Hamilton can remove the ventilator. She's careful and meticulous, not wanting to cause Maggie any further internal damage.

"Okay," Hamilton says when the ventilator is out. "Tip her towards me on three. One, two, three."

Lena holds Maggie's head as J'onn and Eliza help to turn Maggie onto her side.

"Oh my God," Lena and Eliza gasp in unison as liquid spills from Maggie's mouth and splatters onto the floor. A puddle of noxious green begins to form at her bedside; it seems like it's never going to stop.

"Okay, I think she's done," Hamilton declares after a few longs moments.

Maggie's body stills and she's rolled onto her back. "We need to re-insert the ventilator."

The group works efficiently together over the relentless sound of Alex and Kara's monitors to ensure that Maggie is stable. Once again, the detective lies motionless, the only evidence of her seizure being the drying lines of spit and green water that stain her cheeks.

Maggie may be seemingly okay for now, but Alex and Kara are definitely not.

Everyone except Doctor Hamilton turns their attention to the screens. Alex's heart rate is 189 beats per minute, but Kara's is even higher.

"What's happening to them?" Eliza almost whispers.

No one answers because no one really can.

They continue to stare at the monitors, powerless to do anything else, unable to move because something unknown is happening the two people who are most important to all of them.

It's come out of nowhere; their vitals have been normal despite the change in atmosphere and the obvious stress they're both sure to be under.

Kara's heart rate peaks at 231 beats per minute; that's high and dangerous even for her alien physiology. As far as everyone back at the DEO knows, Kara may not even have her powers on Drozisia, which could make her current condition even worse.

But when Kara's monitor shows a flatline and emits a never-ending shriek, Lena, J'onn, Eliza and Winn know that the Danvers sisters' situation is a million times worse than they'd initially feared.

Lena gasps in shock, her hand clamped firmly over her mouth. Her teary green eyes are fixed on the straight line that cuts the screen in half. She's completely lost to the world until she feels a warm, supportive hand slip into hers. She doesn't need to look to know who it is. Only a mother would be strong enough to offer reassurance to another when her own children were in danger.

Lena grips tightly onto Eliza's hand, uses it as a grounding to keep her in the here and now, to stop herself from slipping into her own darkening thoughts as the reality of what this means, of the massive significance of that little green line, begins to hit home.

Alex's heart continues to beat wildly according to the monitor next to Kara's. The stark contrast between them only makes things so much worse. If Kara really is dead, Eliza knows that Alex will never forgive herself. She'll blame herself for all of this, for taking Kara with her to Drozisia, for putting her life in danger, for not protecting her better, when none of this is her fault.

It will break her.

And that's if she survives whatever's happening on Drozisia.

Eliza takes a deep breath and forces herself to stop thinking like that. Danvers women are fighters. She just needs to have faith in her daughters, in Alex, and believe that they can come back.

J'onn's eyes are trained to the ground, unable to look at the screens any longer. The world may be about to lose its two finest agents, but he may be about to lose his daughters all over again. The whole situation is almost exactly the same; the Drazans have invaded and are about to tear his entire life apart again. The feelings of anger and loss and desolation and fear are exactly the same now as they were all that time ago on Mars.

For this to happen to him once in his three hundred years is already beyond cruel, but to happen twice…

Winn still hovers in the doorway. He leans against the wall for support, unable to believe what he's seeing. His best friend and someone whom he as come to see as a big – albeit very intimidating – sister, are in so much more danger than he could ever imagine. He can't picture his life without the bubbling blonde there to make it brighter or the determined brunette there to scold him when he's being an idiot. And if they're gone, it means that Maggie will follow and he would miss her and her playful teasing. Kara, Alex and Maggie are the beating heart of the Superfriends. They couldn't be super without them.

A single beep slices through the long screech being emitted by Kara's monitor. The incessant sound is gone. A part of the line briefly flickers into a small sharp point before straightening again. And then it does it again, and again, and again until Kara's heart begins to beat properly.

"She did it!" Winn exclaims, his fist pumping the air in celebration. "Alex did it!"

J'onn breathes a long sigh of relief and offers Doctor Hamilton a thankful smile, which he finds is returned. He gives Winn an over-excited slap on his shoulder, which causes the young agent to flinch, but the smile never drops from his face.

Lena finds that she can't fight the tears anymore. She's too awash with a mixture of emotions. The hand that hovered over her mouth finds it way up to cover her eyes as her tears begin to fall. Her shoulders shake as relieved sobs escape her and she never lets go of Eliza's hand. Lena suddenly finds a pair of comforting arms wrapped tightly across her back, holding her close and rocking her gently. She knows immediately that it's Eliza and this only makes her cry harder.

Lena has never had a mom, not really. Her own died when she was little and too young to remember and Lillian was as far from motherly as she could get, at least with Lena, so to have someone who has come to fill that deep hole in her life means more to the CEO than anyone could ever imagine. To have a maternal figure to hold her right now is more than she could ask for because it's just what she needs, what she's always needed. She lets her tense body relax as she hugs Eliza back and sniffles when the older woman places a motherly kiss into her hair.

"I think this calls for more brownies!" Winn declares before disappearing to go and get them.

Doctor Hamilton picks up her tablet and begins to check through the flood of information that's being transferred from Alex and Kara's trackers. Lena, J'onn and Eliza look at her expectantly.

"Everything seems to be okay," she announces after a few moments. "It looks like there was a lot of stress on Kara's body and, as we know, her heart did stop. I have no idea what caused it but whatever Alex did; Kara is going to be fine. They both are."

The room collectively begins to celebrate, although it's incredibly short lived.

A rumble tears through the DEO, the ground shaking beneath their feet. A siren begins to blare and the agents not already fighting in the city rush past the med bay, scattering in all directions; some towards the armoury and the rest towards the central base.

"CODE RED! WE HAVE A CODE RED!"

Winn's voice just about carries down the hall above the siren's wail, his rapid footsteps thudding against the floor. He suddenly appears in the doorway before skidding into it, coming to a crashing stop. "Code… Red," he pants, crouching, his hands resting on his knees as he tries to stabilise his breathing. "It's a-a… Code Red."

"What's happening, Agent Schott?" J'onn asks, his demeanour now serious.

"It's the Drazans, they're attacking the DEO," Winn replies, still gasping for air. He really needs to sign up for some more field training.

"I thought we were prepared?" J'onn barks, although he's not angry with anyone in particular. In fact, he's more frustrated that the measures he put in place to counter the imminent Drazan attack seem to have been ineffective.

"We were ready, sir," Winn replies. "But they outnumber us now. They're fighting to get in as we speak."

Eliza cradles her head in her hands. First Maggie gets shot, then Kara almost dies and Alex is in just as much danger and now the DEO is under threat. She thinks that the situation can't possibly get any worse until Lena voices exactly what Eliza is thinking.

"Wait, hold on, why are the Drazans attacking the DEO? What do you have that they want?" Lena asks, a frown tugging at her eyebrows as she folds her arms. "What haven't you told us?" She tips her head in Eliza's direction when she sees that the eldest Danvers looks just as perplexed as she feels.

J'onn glances over to Winn, who looks uncomfortable, before clearing his throat and delivering the answer no one wants to hear.

"They want Maggie."


	8. Get Knocked Down, Get Back Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've included some Trigedasleng from The 100 in this chapter, please see the notes at the end for translations.

The panel slides closed behind Alex and Kara with a quiet click. There's no going back now, even if they wanted to. The thought never crosses their minds because they've come so far and feel like they're incredibly close to finding the Drozia leaf.

"It's so bright in here," Kara grumbles, cupping her hand protectively over her eyes. The fluorescent lights reflect harshly against the white and dark chrome panelled walls and the shiny floor doesn't help.

"Here." Alex digs through Kara's backpack and pulls out a pair of Ray-Bans. She opens them and places them on Kara's face. Kara's features instantly relax as she allows her eyes to open properly after blinking a few times.

"Thanks," Kara says, motioning for Alex to turn around so that she can grab her pair from her backpack. "If we're gonna save Maggie, it looks like we're gonna do it in style!"

Alex smiles a small smile and nods. Although Kara is trying to keep the mood light like she's been doing for most of their journey, Alex can tell that she's doing it for herself now as much as her. No matter how good Kara is at trying to hide it, Alex knows that the incident in the pool has shaken her and she makes a note to talk to her sister about it when they get back.

"I still wanna know how Winn knew to pack all this stuff. I mean, it's like he's put an Undetectable Extension Charm on our bags."

Alex snorts and jokingly rolls her eyes. Trust Kara to come out with a Harry Potter reference. She seems to have one for everything. "Nerd," Alex fake coughs into her closed hand. "How long have you been waiting to use that?" She asks, her raised eyebrow creeping way above the rim of her glasses.

"Since Hermione pulled Harry's Cloak of Invisibility from her bag," Kara replies like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

Alex can believe that it's true. "So…" She begins, trying to remember when the last Harry Potter book was released. "For over ten years?"

Kara bites her head and nods, lightly embarrassed. She pushes at the edge of her Ray-Bans like she would her glasses. "So which way?" She asks, pointing up and down the corridor in an attempt to change the conversation.

Alex pulls out their map. Despite having enhanced hearing, she keeps checking their surroundings out of habit and because she's so unused to being able to hear as much as she can. Or can't, as it would seem.

"Do you hear something?" Kara asks, following Alex's line of sight and wishing that she could hear too.

Alex shakes her head and turns her attention back to the map. "I'm picking up voices but they're not too close yet. It looks like we need to take a right from here and then another further down."

Kara makes to do as Alex says but is stopped in her tracks when she feels a hand grasp at her wrist and yank her back.

"Wait, we don't know whether they have any CCTV or other surveillance in place," Alex says seriously. "There definitely aren't any cameras in this hallway but it doesn't mean that other parts of the base aren't riddled with them and who knows what futuristic technology the Drazans have?"

"Maybe they don't have any at all," Kara says with a shrug. "I mean, if almost no one ever comes here why would they? Unless they don't trust their own."

Alex knows that they can't take anything for granted. "They had those guards back at that outpost. We should still be vigilant," she declares, folding up the map. "Vigilant but fast. We need to get out of here before anyone notices those two Drazans at the pool. And we have… Just under sixteen hours left."

Kara would normally be able to tell how Alex was feeling through her eyes but with her wearing her Ray-Bans, she can't see them. What she does detect is the sudden change in Alex's voice. It only waivers slightly but it's all Kara needs to know that they don't have as much time as Alex thought they did or thinks they need.

"And that leaves us eight to find what we came for and eight to get back. We can do it." There's a steely determination to Kara's words and she hopes that Alex believes them as much as she does.

Alex nods as if to shake Kara's words around her head and force them to sink in. She desperately wants to believe them, and she does, in part, but something buried in the back of her pre-occupied mind fights ferociously to rise to the forefront of her thoughts and screams at her that the next sixteen or so hours aren't going to be as easy as they need them to be.

She just hopes that she's wrong.

She tucks the map back into the hidden pocket of her suit, sucks in a long, deep breath and forces the tenseness in her muscles to loosen as she rolls her shoulders. "'Kay, let's go."

Side by side, Alex and Kara make their way towards the end of the corridor. Sky blue and chocolate brown eyes scan the area, never lying still. Their footsteps are light, as silent as possible. The only sound Alex hears is Kara's heartbeat, which is a little elevated and understandably so.

As they come to the end of the hallway, Alex holds out her arm and gesturess for Kara to stop. They take up positions against opposing walls, backs pressed flat against the cold panels. With two split fingers, Alex points from her eyes and draws an inverted 'l' shape in the air.

That's one signal that Kara can't mistake. She gives Alex a hard nod before they move to peer carefully around their respective corners.

"Clear," Alex declares, though she doesn't alter her position until Kara adds her agreement.

They step into the next hallway. It looks almost identical to the last one except for a few doors scattered along the walls, one of which is open, and the dead end that lies a good thirty-five feet further down.

Except it's not a dead end at all, not really.

Alex spins on her heels, assessing their alternative but the hallway continues as far as she can see. They have two choices but to Alex there's only one that seems to offer any real promise of getting them somewhere.

"We gotta get to that elevator," Alex whispers to Kara as she returns her attention to Option A.

Kara nods her agreement.

Pulling her blaster from its holster, Alex begins to advance cautiously down the hallway, Kara flanking her. The Kryptonian keeps an eye out for any activity behind them but the place seems to be pretty dead.

That shouldn't be surprising with the number of Drazans that are wreaking havoc on National City right now.

Still, there should be some more somewhere, right? They can't all be in National City.

As they pass the first door, Alex peers through the small glass window that sits three quarters of they way up it. There's little of note; a few bare counters and cupboards and tables.

Alex returns to her slightly crouched position and watches as Kara follows her lead along the other side of the corridor. The blonde looks over at her sister and shakes her head to indicate that there's nothing of interest in that room either.

They stealthily advance down the hallway, checking every room and finding that each of them contains mostly the same things, nothing of which helps them to find the Drozia leaf.

"Alex," Kara whisper shouts, beckoning her sister over as her eyes scan a room through the window. "Come check this out."

Alex complies and stands next to Kara, their heads level.

While the room is identically laid out to the others, this one looks to have been used more recently. On the table in the centre sits a microscope, a box of slides and a number of vials and test tubes, some of which are filled with a noxious green liquid.

 _The_ noxious green liquid.

Alex doesn't even hesitate to try to open the door upon seeing the Drazan venom. There aren't any handles; there's a single plate set into the door. The agent uses her initiative and presses it lightly with the tips of her fingers. She retracts her hand and takes a small step backwards as the door slides to the right and disappears into the wall with a hiss she hopes only she can hear.

Alex tightens her grip on her gun as she walks slowly into the room with the door closing automatically behind Kara. She studies the microscope; it's unlike anything she's ever seen before. The DEO prides itself on boasting the most advanced and up-to-date technology, most of which is mind-blowingly sophisticated, but the microscope that sits in front of Alex makes hers back at the DEO labs look like a toy.

"It's beautiful," Alex whispers, reaching out to caress its frame gently in her hands.

"Who's the nerd now?" Kara pouts playfully, folding her arms across her stomach.

"Yeah yeah," Alex retorts jokingly, unable to tear her attention from the masterpiece in front of her. She can't help herself as she squeezes her left eye closed and glances into the lens.

Kara ambles around the rest of the room, opening cupboards and scanning shelves to see what they hold. She just finds more lab equipment and vials full of liquid.

"Oh my God, Kara," Alex exhales in disbelief. "Look at this."

Kara scooches around the table and stands next to her sister. She holds the tube of the microscope and she looks through the lens. Her crinkle forms deep across her brow as she tries to understand what she's looking at.

"What do you see?" Alex asks, watching Kara's reaction. It's exactly the same as hers.

"I don't know," Kara replies, frowning further. "I guess it's just some of that freaky green goop the Drazans fire from their weapons. Their venom, right?"

"Right," Alex agrees. "But look at this." She whips the slide from the microscope and quickly replaces it with another.

Kara immediately sees the difference. The first one was a grassy shade of green and Kara could see the properties of the liquid. It didn't look like anything special. This one, however, is an ugly, sickly shade of lime that is far from pleasant to look at. Worse still, the molecules look like they're aggressively mutating, replicating themselves and fighting each other to spawn more and more hostile molecules.

"It's…. growing," Kara states, and Alex can see her own shock replicated on her little sister's face. "It's like it's reacting to itself."

"Exactly," Alex agrees. "We knew that the Drazans had weaponised their venom but this is far more advanced that any of us thought. They've found a way to make it develop at what, ten times its normal rate, maybe more?"

"And what does that mean for…" Kara can't bring herself to end her question, leaving unsaid words and their implications dangling precariously in the air until Alex bravely finishes it for her.

"For Maggie?"

Kara nods solemnly, her wavy blonde hair bouncing around her unusually slumped shoulders.

Alex swallows hard, her mind calculating exactly how much worse the whole situation has become in the last thirty seconds based upon their fortunate findings. She slides her hair behind her ear as she sometimes does when she's uncomfortable or stressed or worried. "If they've used this strength of poison on her, and we _have_ to assume that they have, it will be consuming her body way faster than we thought. I'd say that she's got even less time than Doctor Hamilton predicted." Alex just about manages to keep her voice even but it takes everything she's got to stop the cracks from showing.

"How much less?" Kara is almost scared to ask the question.

Alex shakes her head because she doesn't know, not exactly, and because her answer frightens her. "To give me and Lena the best chance of getting the cure ready and to make sure that Maggie's body has enough time to respond to it…" Alex lets out a long, deflated sigh. "My best guess is that we need to be back at the DEO within the next eight hours." Alex's voice trails off to become little more than a whisper.

Kara takes a minute to digest Alex's assessment. She had felt pretty confident that they had more than enough time to get in and out of the Drazan's base and back to Earth in the time frame that they've been working with, but now everything suddenly feels like it's edging closer and closer to being impossible, like Maggie's life and chances of survival are slipping out of their ever-reaching grasp.

Kara is snapped from her thoughts by the sound of a zip. She watches as Alex carefully selects a few vials, ones that are a particularly stomach-churning shade of green, and places them into her backpack. "What're you doing?"

Alex closes her bag and shrugs it onto her back. "I figured we could test our cure on these samples before we give it to Maggie, make sure we've got our dosage right. It should give us some kind of guidelines to work with."

"And that," Kara begins, impressed, placing a reassuring hand on Alex's shoulder, "is why you're second-in-command at the DEO and an excellent doctor."

Alex appreciates Kara's compliment but doesn't feel like she can accept it just yet. "Not if I can't save her."

"Pffft, please! You're Agent Alexandra Danvers, Ph.D and all-round badass. You'll be able to understand what's happening to Maggie better than anyone. Of course you'll save her." Kara's words are sincere, although Alex winces a little upon hearing her full name. She flashes a small smile of appreciation in her sister's direction before her interest is piqued by a series of symbols that adorn a sheet of glass that hangs on the wall. Her tired eyes widen as she tries to interpret them but they're all in Drazlen.

"Hey, Kar, what does that say?" Alex asks her sister, pointing at the wall before setting her hands on her hips.

Kara tilts her head to one side and brings her hand to her chin, deep in thought as she studies the scribbles. "I think they're formulas and equations," she concludes. "But they're way more advanced than anything I've ever seen, even on Krypton."

"Do you think you could translate them?" Alex asks, a hint of hope creeping into her voice. "We could take a picture but once we get off this world no one will be able to understand them."

"I guess I can try," Kara says with a non-committal shrug. They don't have any other option. "Do we have anything to write on?"

Alex digs through Kara's bag. "C'mon, Winn, don't let me down now… A-ha!" Alex passes Kara a small notebook and a pencil from her bag's front pouch, which just _had_ to be the last place she checked. "Maybe you were right about the Extension Charm after all."

Kara grins at Alex as she flips open the notebook. As she looks at the wall the writings seem to make complete sense to her but they don't automatically translate into English or Kryptonese because her brain fully understands Drazlen. Her crinkle is more pronounced than Alex can ever recall seeing it when she pours every ounce of focus into actually translating the symbols. She scribbles for what feels like hours because some of the markings don't have a direct translation into English and sometimes she even finds it easier to write parts in Kryptonese before converting them into English.

Alex waits patiently as her sister works. She takes the time to alter her watch to reflect the time that is ticking away, the time that has now pretty much halved from what they had left. She slips another few slides under the microscope, noting how none of them seem to be quite as vicious as the samples she has packed to take with her. Finally, she finds herself studying the microscope again, sliding her sunglasses down her nose to get a better look.

"I'm sure Lena would make you one of those if you asked her nicely," Kara jokes when she sees the awe and something bordering on love in Alex's wide brown eyes. "Don't forget to blink, Lex."

"Right," Alex agrees but she's not really listening to Kara anymore. She takes the book from her sister and begins to make notes of the specifications for each part of the microscope, some of which are definitely beyond what they currently have on Earth, thought that's not to say that Lena wouldn't be capable of replicating it.

Kara sees Alex's whole body tense, her hand gripping and bending the book it holds. She looks at Alex worriedly, questioningly, and the elder Danvers responds by holding her finger to her lips. She moves so that she's hidden from the view through the window in the door and Kara is quick to do the same.

 _One,_ Alex mouths to Kara as she listens to the heavy footsteps that hound down the hall. She listens as they get further away, out of regular hearing distance. "That leaves two in that room with the open door."

"Do you think we can get past them?" Kara asks, biting her lip as she tries to think of any safer ways of getting to the elevator.

"We can try," Alex replies. "Let's go."

Alex just about manages to apply pressure to the panel to open the door when her heart misses a beat at the sound of glass smashing, which reverberates around the small lab. She spins abruptly on her heels as the door opens behind her.

Kara stands frozen, rooted to the spot, wincing. By her side lies a single smashed tube, its vile contents mingled with broken glass in a puddle on the floor. She knocked it off accidentally with her backpack.

"Be careful-"

"ALEX, LOOK OUT!"

Kara's eyes widen in horror as a Drazan materialises behind Alex and bursts through the doorway. Its beady eyes immediately find Alex but before it can even raise one of its talons, Kara shoots across the room and manages to send It crashing against the opposing wall, making it feel the full force of her super strength.

Both Kara and Alex step out into the hallway, fists closed and ready for a fight.

As the Drazan picks itself up off the floor, its partner emerges from the room down the hall.

"I got this one," Alex declares. Her voice is unintentionally filled with confidence; even under pressure, Agent Danvers knows her capabilities and right now nothing in the world could stop her from getting to that elevator. She likes a challenge but their opponents don't stand a chance.

Between them, the Danvers sisters overcome their Drazans with a few swift blows. Kara's knuckles connect with her Drazan's abdomen while Alex deals a strong side kick to her opponent's throat. Each respective hit sends the aliens flying backwards; they collide forcefully in the air, their bodies audibly smacking together and they fall to the floor with an abrupt thud.

When they finally catch their breath, Kara holds up her hand for a Danvers sister's high five. Alex responds by clapping her hand against Kara's.

Alex pauses for a moment. Their fight generated a lot of noise so she wants to be sure that there aren't more Drazans on their way. When she's satisfied that there aren't, Alex wraps her arm around her sister and gives her a hug, something they both need.

Despite the deep crack in the wall from its meeting with the first Drazan being a huge giveaway as to Alex and Kara's intrusion into the base, Alex knows that they can't just leave two unconscious enemies lying there. Even if another Drazan didn't find them, it would only take them waking up and putting the base on high alert for Alex and Kara's mission to be disastrously cut short.

"Grab its legs," Alex directs as she releases Kara and takes hold of the first Drazan's arms. Despite its size, she and Kara easily manage to manoeuvre the Drazan out of the corridor and into the lab. Alex is suddenly grateful for Kara's super strength because that would have taken way longer without it.

"Hang on," Alex exhales breathlessly. She opens a long cupboard door and efficiently unloads its contents onto the table. She crouches back down, grits her teeth and begins to lift the unconscious Drazan back off the floor.

Kara raises her eyebrow sceptically as she watches Alex. She looks between the Drazan, the cupboard, her sister, back to the Drazan and then back at Alex. "Like the movies?" She asks uncertainly and she can't stifle the small laugh that escapes her lips.

"Like the movies," Alex agrees, her voice filled with determination. "On my count. Ready?"

Kara nods strongly.

"Okay. Three, two, one…"

They haul the Drazan into an upright position and carefully stuff it into the cupboard. When they let go, the Drazan slumps downwards against the side of the cupboard into a position that doesn't even look like it should be possible.

"That Drazan is gonna be so uncomfortable and confused when it wakes up," Kara mutters as she moves to pick up its friend.

"Yeah, well at least it isn't dying from the inside out." Alex's voice is dry and humourless. "At least it'll wake up in a couple of hours with nothing more than a headache and sore arms."

Kara bites her lip and casts her eyes down to the ground.

"I'm sorry," Alex says immediately when she sees Kara's face change. She's annoyed with herself for upsetting her sister; she certainly didn't mean to, not ever. "I didn't mean to snap."

Kara shakes her head and instantly seeks to reassure her sister that she isn't upset or offended; she actually couldn't agree more. "No, no, no, Alex, it's okay! We're both tired and a little worse for wear and you're right about these guys being okay in a few hours… But Maggie will be okay too. I promise."

Alex shakes her head. "Kara, I really appreciate that _so, so much_ , but you shouldn't make promises you can't keep." As much as she knows that Kara will give everything she has to make sure Maggie lives, Alex doesn't want her to promise that Maggie will be okay because no one knows whether she will be and she doesn't want Kara to blame herself if she isn't.

"Then I won't break it," the Kryptonian says simply.

"Kara-"

"No, Alex. We have to do this. _We are going to do this_."

Alex concedes; she and Kara are as stubborn as one another so she can see that she won't back down. The defiance and strength in her voice tells Alex that Kara means and believes every word.

And she does, because Kara loves Maggie. She's her badass, fearless, leather jacket-wearing little big sister who may have awful taste in ice cream but the most incredible taste in women because they each share the beautiful centre of their universes; Alex. Kara's favourite thing about Maggie is the way she loves Alex. Maggie would do anything for her, just like Kara. If it were Alex in the med bed back at the DEO fighting for her life, Maggie wouldn't have hesitated to come to Drozisia if it meant saving her. Kara remembers seeing how frightened and utterly terrified Maggie looked when they came far too close to losing Alex in that human fish tank. Kara knew that look, knew exactly how it felt to be the one wearing it. That was the moment she truly realised just how much Alex meant to Maggie. The strength and depth and the fierceness of her love obliterated every unwritten rule and standard Kara had ever created for anyone who dated her big sister because Kara didn't think that anyone could ever be good enough for her. Maggie even said it herself; Alex deserves the best, and, to Kara, Maggie is exactly that. Kara doesn't want to lose the woman who has come to mean so much to her because her life wouldn't ever be the same without the tiny detective and her adorable dimples. Even more, she doesn't want Alex to lose the woman who means more to her than anything else because Kara has lost her world once before and she would do anything to make sure Alex never has to experience that pain.

That's what that "I promise" means and that's exactly why she won't ever break it.

"C'mon," Kara says, turning to leave the room.

"Wait!" Alex exclaims. She had managed to force the cupboard doors closed but had been stood with her back pressed against it in an effort to keep it that way. With the weight of two comatose Drazans threatening to spill out of it, she can't afford to move. "Grab that stool."

Kara hands Alex the stool without question and the brunette carefully adjusts herself so that she can wedge the stool in a secure place without the doors flying open on her.

"A-ha!" She exclaims with a proud smile.

Kara finds herself raising her eyebrows again. The stool lies at a sixty-five degree angle; the seat is jammed under the cupboard's handles and bows slightly under the immense pressure it's enduring. Alex is pretty confident that it'll hold.

"Which DEO training class taught you how to do that?" Kara jokes as she observes the stool.

"None," Alex replies with a shrug before adding, "That, I did learn from the movies."

Kara giggles and Alex can't help but join in. The sound is just too sweet and infectious and maybe a quick light moment is exactly what they need before they continue on their perilous pursuit of the Drozia leaf.

"'Kay, are we ready?" Alex asks.

"As we'll ever be," Kara sighs.

With that, Kara and Alex stride purposefully from the lab and back out into the hall. As they approach the elevator, they see a sign painted on the wall next to it.

"How far down does this place go?" Alex gasps upon seeing how far the Drazlen symbols sprawl out across the wall.

"Rao only knows," Kara replies as she studies the sign, her arms folded across her stomach. "But I think we want Level 45." She points at a particular section of writing and Alex immediately recognises the symbol of the Drozia leaf. "That seems like our best shot."

"'Kay," Alex agrees. She presses the button set into the wall to call the elevator. As they wait for it to arrive, they stand in defensive positions, ready to fight if there's already a Drazan in there.

The doors hiss open to reveal a large, roomy, empty elevator that looks as clinical as the rest of the base. They step inside and Kara immediately looks to the sheet of glass that is set into the wall of the elevator. It's backlit and gives a list of the different floors they can get to.

"Rao, Lena would love this," Kara mutters as she studies the tablet, thinking about the other person who is also the centre of her universe. Lena would be as much in awe of their technology as Alex was about the microscope. If Lena got her hands on equipment that was even remotely as close to this in its specification, Kara is pretty sure she wouldn't see her for the rest of the year. She'd probably move into her L-Corp labs, which is pretty much her second home anyway, and work tirelessly to understand the components it needs to function, the strength of the power source that fuels it, the standard of software it runs... Sure, this is just programmed to move an elevator but the technology behind would surely be transferrable to other things like tablets and phones and other means of communication. It could be used in hospitals and at the DEO and to teach kids in schools… Kara herself can see that it's pretty incredible.

"Kara?" Alex prompts when the elevator doesn't move.

"Oh! Uh, right, sorry. We can get to Level 45 from here." Kara pauses, desperate to be able to show Lena the technology somehow. "Grab my cell?"

Alex pulls Kara's cell from a little pocket on the side of her backpack. Although they figured that their phones wouldn't work on Drozisia, J'onn had made sure that a sceptical Winn packed them anyway in case something went wrong with the portal and they ended up somewhere other than the DEO. There was no way Lena would get it wrong but J'onn had insisted. If something were to go even slightly wrong with their return to Earth, he first and foremost had to ensure that they could communicate with each other, but he also couldn't tell his superiors that his best agent and Supergirl had disappeared or worse because they couldn't get in contact with them.

"Can you film this?" Kara can't contain the excitement in her voice at the thought of being able to show Lena the tech.

Alex unlocks Kara's cell – they know each other's codes, though it wouldn't have taken Alex long to figure it out anyway with her training – and opens the camera. "Rolling."

"Lee, look at this!" Kara squeals and Alex giggles at the childlike excitement in her voice. She alters her angle so that the tablet is in full view of her shot. Kara points to the different symbols and reads out their meaning. "Left, right, up and down – hey, this thing goes diagonally!" Kara grins at the camera. "Oookay…" She taps at different lit up areas on the screen, biting on her lip as she concentrates. "Ge smak daun, gyon op nodotaim," she declares, tapping the icons on the screen in time with her words, clearly and rightfully proud of herself.

Alex knows immediately that Kara isn't speaking in Drazlen; she's spent way too much time watching The 100 with Kara not to know what that means. "Damn right we get back up."

Alex stops the recording. They stand in silence for a moment, Alex leaning against the wall of the elevator, Kara standing at its centre, all her weight resting on one leg.

The Kryptonian bites her lip as her mind runs over everything she scribbled into that little notebook. There had been so much of it that she figured would be important so she had made the best notes she could, but there was one thing that had been playing on her mind since the first read it. "Lexie?"

"Yeah?"

"The stuff on the wall back in the lab… Most of it was formulas and equations and other things that the Drazans have used to enhance the effects of their venom and paralyse people for longer, but there's something else."

Alex's brown eyes instinctively seek Kara's blue ones as she waits for her to continue, although they're obscured by her sunglasses.

"The Drozia leaf will save Maggie but for a Drazan its effects are… Recreational."

Alex laughs in disbelief. "So, wait, you're telling me that all of this, _this whole place_ , is basically just one big Breaking Bad meth lab?"

Kara nods. "I think they take their sacrifices as offerings to their god or gods in the hope that their Drozia yield is rich."

"So let me get this right," Alex sighs incredulously. Her hands curl into clenched fists without her even realising. "These psychopaths want to take my girlfriend – my _world_ – away from me so that they can get _high_?" Alex spits through gritted teeth, though her voice rises as she speaks. "And in the process they almost killed you too as well as attacking the city. Oh, these guys are gonna _pay_ -"

Alex's angry and completely reasonable rant is cut short when the elevator stops abruptly with a small jolt. The thrumming of her hurting heart can be the only explanation for her not hearing them as the lift drew closer, for not being able to see what's about to happen. Her eyes widen in horror as the doors begin to slide open, revealing three Drazans who are armed to their crooked teeth with their prized blasters.

 _This is it_ , Alex thinks. She's dead, Kara's dead, Maggie is dead. They're all going to die because of one momentary lapse in concentration, because she has let her feelings get the better of her this one time.

Except they're not dead.

The Drazans don't even give her or Kara a second glance, and that's when Alex realises she can feel a warm hand clinging to hers like their lives depend on it, which they do; Kara is camouflaging them. She can see her sister's shimmering outline and it takes all of Alex's effort not to exhale audibly in a mixture of relief and stress.

Alex throws her sister a look of immense gratitude that also shows her just how close that was. Kara squeezes Alex's hand to tell her that she's got her back like she always has and always will. They each take short, shallow breaths in an effort to remain as quiet as possible, though they still sound incredibly loud in Kara and Alex's heads.

The elevator jerks to a stop once again. Alex frowns and looks over at Kara.

 _Forty-five_ , she mouths questioningly.

Kara manages to peer over one of the Drazan's shoulders and catch a glimpse of the glass tablet before nodding in confirmation at Alex.

They watch as the three Drazans step out of the elevator one by one, but their eyes widen in shock at what it has opened onto.

Kara was right about the base being a lab, but it's more than that, way more. The Drazan's whole military operation is situated here too, which explains why the rest of the base seems to have been so quiet. The room is swarming with armed Drazans, most of whom are standing to attention in front of a raised platform. A Drazan, clearly a General, viciously barks orders at them. The three that got out of the elevator swiftly join their comrades who are clearly gearing up to aid those that are already fighting on Earth.

If only they could warn J'onn and the others.

Kara gulps nervously and Alex can hear both of their heart rates increasing more and more as they realise that they have no choice; to get to the Drozia leaf, they have to make it through this room and past every last one of these Drazans.

Alex is suddenly the one squeezing Kara's hand. She draws strength from having her sister beside her, her sister who always has her back. "Oso gonplei nou ste odon," she whispers because their fight definitely isn't over; it's just got a whole lot harder and right now they could do with channeling their inner Lexa.

"Oso throu daun ogeda," Kara agrees with a strong nod.

They can make it through this, they _will_ make it through this because together they've made it this far and no amount of danger or life-threatening situations could ever stop the Danvers sisters when they set their incredible minds to something.

Nothing in this room, on this planet, on Earth or anywhere in the multiverse can stop them from saving Sawyer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigedasleng:
> 
> Ge smak daun, gyon op nodotaim - Get knocked down, get back up.
> 
> Oso gonplei nou ste odon - Our fight is not over.
> 
> Oso throu daun ogeda - We fight together.


End file.
